SAUT
by SneezySoul
Summary: Jack isn't sure what he does with his life, going everywhere and pranking everyone. But one day it all changes with the guardians.
1. I

**Sorry for the readers of ' _Poorly Written_ '. I hit a wall there and decided it'd take a while to finish. I found this old thing on my computer, though, and hope you all enjoy this! ( I know I did enjoy writing it! )**

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 **S.A.U.T**

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 **H** e wonders if maybe the moon had made him just so he could spiffen up the guardian's lives a bit more due to the odd lack of Pitch recently. Then again, Jack did happen to 'escape' from the moon not but two hundred years ago, and he was sure Tsar was wanting his little toy back ( _maybe_. Jack never really had anyone who actually wanted him. But if he flew upup _up_ and back to the moonclipper, he's afraid he'll be left alone in a cold dark cell like the rest of the faulted experiments that Tsar had worked with, again. )

Yeah, Tsar experimented on various living organisms. And Jack happened to be the only one to escape that strange, cold prison. He remembers how many evils were lurking, snarling, growling, cackling and clawing at the bars of their cages. Jack felt the urge to thank the moon for not letting him in another cell with those scary, terrifying monsters.

The guardians, on the other hand...Jack wonders if they were the working, perfect experiments. No faulty wires, no faulty thoughts. Just... _perfection_.

Of course, this small train of thought was what had made him become a sort of 'villain' to these guardians. He'd sometimes whisper to the wind dirty words, and let it shout them out in the Guardians home base at three in the morning. Or, he'd pile the city full of snow, deep enough to prevent someone from opening their car door.

But days like today? He scoffs. Today, he just wasn't feeling up to anything. He didn't feel like playing with the children across the park like he usually did, he didn't feel like asking the wind to pick him up and he certainly didn't even feel like eating, which was rare for him, as food was food and his stomach ached and whined despite his not wanting of it.

He had no money, actually. He had nothing to trade for even a little comfort such as a twenty-five cent soda. He figures he could survive this, as he hadn't eaten or slept in about a straight week now. Not even a little nibble off of someone's unwatched plate of french fries he'd occasionally see.

He just didn't feel like doing anything but relaxing. He closes his eyes, his large, crooked staff held leaning against his right shoulder, as his hands were stuffed into the safety of the pouch in front of his blue, frosted hoody. He had the look of any normal teenager, almost, wearing new-ish black jeans, the before-mentioned hoody, and some old, ragged-looking tennis shoes that were only worn for protection against various rocks or other things that should not be stepped on. All had been either stolen, or given to him by a kind person here and there.

He knew the hood came from a married couple at a ranch who had let him stay with them for about a few days, until they finally fixed their old vintage television set and saw the news, which had held a small 'fight' between the guardians and Jack. ( The teenager remembers that fight; He had been snowing down Burgess again, but this time made a very inappropriate statue of Bunnymund and Santa clause. It still stands in shambled blocks today, he guessed. )

They threw him out after a few short goodbyes. The woman, Ninna, had cried and cried for him to stay but her husband hadn't listened to her reasoning that Jack was ' _just a child! He didn't know_ '. Jack wonders if time had eaten them up along with the other humans of that era. Maybe they had grandchildren, or maybe they were still alive and kicking. Jack wouldn't know, he could just barely tell the time of day, let alone what century it was or the important stuff.

He hated to admit it, but he did miss Ninna a lot. She was probably the only one who had gotten close to Jack, letting him view her as a mother-like figure. The husband, on the other hand...he kind of reminded Jack of those strange biker guys that try to run him over on occasion.

He idly walks by a few shops, cars parked out around him, and the occasional horn going off. people weren't as crowded in public today as they were last week or so. The weather was chilled, even without the pleasant breeze the wind blew their way. The nonsense chatter around him made him slightly agitated, as his stomach had knotted up again, feeling as if he had eaten rocks and they were jumbling around there, beating against each other, as his stomach flares in a dull, familiar pain.

He didn't care, though. Last night he had been flying around, and he finally recognized the first signs of the guardian of wonder's holiday. People were starting to decorate their homes, shops, and even sometimes he'd spot a cherry red car splattered with green paint and decorated with bells and fake snow.

Keeping himself as nonexistent as he could in this small crowd of people, he turns into a book shop. Hopefully a little bit of reading material would calm his stomach down and give him some kind of inspiration to keep walking. Every time Christmas even came around, Jack would feel a sense of loss somewhat, when he saw the guardian flying over the city.

Maybe this time he'll intervene. Maybe give the old bearded man a little bit of snow-blindness. Maybe then the man would try to find a Rudolph. Jack's always wanted to see the Rudolph thing. Maybe it was just him, though, as the guardian himself always laughed at the assumption of a red nosed reindeer, whenever he managed to bring it up during a 'fight'.

The book shop is large, like a library, but comfortable looking as well. Cinnamon colored couch, chairs and love seats all adorned one section of it, as if tempting someone to sit down and read a few books before buying them. Some people were browsing the shelves, obviously for a Christmas gift or two. The worker at the cash register is oddly dressed for his liking, though, Jack supposes. The person is dressed heavily, large coat trailing down to their feet, a scarf, mixed with a grey beanie. Jack could barely make out their face as the bottom half of their face was covered by the scarf and the beanie did a wonderful job of pulling off the image of ' _I'm a walking pillow all warm and snug_ '. He giggles at the thought of the person having a blanket underneath the coat as well.

The person eyes him down as if they knew him. Jack wouldn't be surprised; he loved pranking this city when Burgess was already snowed in. He inwardly shrugs at the look he receives as he heads toward a shelf, not bothering in the least to hide. Let the person call the cops, then maybe today would be less boring.

' _Let's see..._ ' he puts a finger to his bottom lip in thought, looking over the various titles, ranging from ' _secrets to the grave_ ', all the way to ' _medical dictionary_ '. Before he leaves he should suggest that they organize the books by type, instead of by page size. Not everyone cared if it was a quick read or not. He reaches out and grabs a random book named ' _gatekeeper_ ', before making his way to another isle.

Jack usually would go to the library to read a good book, but the book shop was a better deal, to him. The book shops around this city were technically like a library, but you were allowed to buy the books instead of borrowing them. You could read them in the shop, which was something not a lot of book stores in Burgess let you do, as Burgess' book stores would place the books in plastic, or placing them on a computer as an archive, only giving you a summary of said book.

"Excuse me?" a voice says to his left. He turns his head, only to view the extremely-Eskimo-like cashier.

He can only blink, and give a small lopsided grin. He was definitely _NOT_ a people person, and he hoped that this person somehow left him alone to his own devices. Oh well, no backing down, now.

The cashier continues; "I was wondering if you were looking for a certain book? - I mean, I don't think you'd be into the gatekeeper, much. It's kind of a sad story, and you seem kind of the happy type?"

Jack smiles, looking at the books summary on the back for a minute. "Yeah. Been feeling down today, why not a down book?" He shrugs, then. "I really don't care what I read. As long as it isn't boring. Today is pretty boring, to me."

The person, a female by the sounds of it, giggles. "Today has been boring. No one wants to go outside and I can't blame them!" she laughs, then. "Anyway, my name is Liana."

"Nice to meet you, Liana." the name rolls off the tongue easy enough, he supposes. "I'm Jack." he offers up, despite the warning bells going off in his head about 'secret identity'. ( _Secret? pht._ The whole world knows who he is. I mean, come on, who _else_ has white hair, a crooked staff, and never seems bothered by the cold? )

Liana's eyes seems to sparkle just a bit more as he graces her with a toothy smile.

"Are you from around here?" she asks, then. "I've seen you around..."

"No." Jack answers, thumb randomly brushing the pages of the book he held in a nervous tick. His staff had shifted to the side a little and so he pushed it back into his shoulder. "I kinda get around. Y'know, walk places, live places."

She gives him a sad look, which is impressive considering half of her face is hidden. "You don't have anywhere to live? No home around here?"

Jack looks to the ceiling in thought, of whether or not it'd be safe to tell her that no, he did not have a home. He considers not telling her for a good minute or two before going to respond.

"Not really." he smiles, unsure if that was the correct thing to answer. All well, already dug his grave, might as well go along for the sake of being honest, right?

"No relatives?"

"No." He quickly goes to look back at the books. "So, what titles do you think Id like?" he tries to change the subject, which earned him another look from Liana as she wrings her hands together. He wonders where she had purchased those colorful gloves she wore, as it certainly didn't match the rest of her bland attire, what with the gloves being a lime green mixed with purple. Kind of like the guardian of memories' feathers. He never did get around to pranking her yet to get a closer look. He should do that next time he felt the need to laugh.

"If you don't care about what you read much, I'd suggest _The Alchemist_ by Paulo Coelho, or _Seraphina_ by Rachel Hartman. They're short, simple, and really special." She shrugs, the rustling from underneath her coat a strange sound, like claws catching on leather. "And if you have no where to go...I'll let you stay here." she offers. "There's a bedroom up in the attic where I used to stay when I didn't feel like going home. You can stay here and protect the store from evil-doers."

Jack laughs at that. Didn't this person know who he was? - _He froze over Egypt only last year for pete's sake_!

"I'll come back soon and let you know if I can." He quickly picks up one of the books the woman had recommended. Something with dragons? whatever. A good book was a good book, right?

"Oh." she says. "And are you planning on purchasing books?"

"No." Jack shakes his head. "I don't have any money with me. I was going to read a few chapters, though. Then maybe think about the endings of them. It passes the time way faster then sitting down, when you're waiting."

Liana tilts her head a bit, as if in curiosity. He knew that she probably felt the urge to force him to stay overnight at least, as she had that oh-so-familiar glint in her eyes that Ninna had when she found him in her barn with one of her homemade biscuits that he had stolen. Jack wasnt sure if he wanted to handle another case of that. Who knew if Liana had some kind of over-jealous boyfriend, or if she'd kick him out once she realized that, hey, this kid beat up the guardians with snowballs while skating around a baseball field during the game.

"What are you waiting for?" she then asks, turning her attention to the books, rearranging them by author, slowly, as if to give the boy time to think things out for himself. Jack would thank her openly for it, but he was sure she would brush it off and call him a social weirdo.

"Christmas eve, I guess." he chuckles. "You get to see Santa work. I wanted to see if I could throw a snowball at him."

"That's not good, waiting just to throw a snowball at him. He works hard, you know." she chides, shaking a finger at him, but not sternly, more like in playful gesture. "Why not stay with me this holiday? - I know, total stranger here, but..." she rubs her hand against her arm, looking down to the right. "Having no where to be and no one to be with on Christmas is...is like...a dentist without his tools!"

"I'll think about it, okay?" he smiles reassuringly, or at least he hopes so. He's not used to smiling for people, he's used to smiling for fun and laughter, or the wind. So he couldn't tell if he was in the norm of society or not. He assumes he's alright for now, as she hasn't told him he was weird yet. Score one Brownie point for him -

his stomach gives a short moan.

Liana and him stare at one another, contemplating what to say, before they both laugh.

"Have you eaten?" she asks, hand covering where her mouth would be, trying to stifle her giggle-fit.

Jack just chuckles along. "I had a shepherds pie for breakfast." he lies. "I guess I should have brought some gum or something, right?"

"Oh no," she gasps a bit. "do you want some sugar free gum? I have a few cases of it! You can have a pack or two, but!" she pokes him in the chest with her index finger. "You have to promise me you'll be back tomorrow for lunch!"

"Okay, _okay_!" he giggles as she pokes him one more time for measure - who knew he was this ticklish? - he follows her lead over to the counter, where she goes behind the strange, oval-shaped cash register, and pulls out a shoebox, which she then sets on the counter and opens to reveal various sugar free bubblegum packets, filling said box to the brim.

"Wow." he drawls, taking a pack out - Strawberry flavored, it said - and looks everything over. "You're really prepared, aren't you?"

"Yup!" she claps her hands together excitedly.

"Why are they all sugar free? - Are you dia...dialectic?"

"Diabetic." she corrects, giggling at the boy's mistake. "And no, I just read that sugar really destroys teeth. So, I kind of go all sugar free on candies and so on."

Jack takes a minute, and then grabs two packs of the Orange flavored packs. He stuck one of them into his hoody pouch, and opened up the other, taking out one of the silvery-covered sticks of gum. "Thanks." he says, before happily sticking the gum into his mouth, refusing to chew it for a moment, savoring the flavor before throwing the wrapper in the small bin by the door.

"You're welcome. I'll let you read for a bit, okay?" Liana says, closing the shoe box and placing it back underneath the counter. Jack wonders how she was even able to afford all that gum, as it seemed to be at least thirty dollar's worth. Imagine how many greasy dollar hamburgers one could buy with all that money. ( ' _No_ ,' Jack thought. ' _dont think about food. Only Orange gum okay?_ ' )

He flashes her another smile, when she turns to give him one of her own, before turning around and stalking off back to the shelf he was previously at.

He could go through books pretty fast, actually, but he'd always stop toward a distressing part, or close to the end, to make small bets with himself about what would happen. He was never right, of course, unless it was the Hobbit, but that was a lucky guess on his part. So, sometimes he would grab as many books as possible, read as many as he could, and thinks about all of the adventures or information for a few days. Then he'll come back to see what was right ad what was wrong, if the books weren't sold out. ( He had that happen once, when he went to look through the Harry Potter book series. Everyone had all but taken every one but the first, and Jack had already read that one, sadly. )

He could practically feel Liana's eyes watching him when he happened to be reading the back of a book, or just minding his own business. He wonders if maybe she really was like Ninna, all belief that 'he was only a child'.

In all, wonderful honesty, he does go to 'attack' the guardians regularly, if he can, and on his own accord. He doesn't think looking young had anything to do with making fun of the main four heroes.

Of course, once, he ran into _Mother goose_ and her master. He didn't know how he managed to escape that large feathery deathtrap, but he did. ( He flew around, being followed for three days straight after he ran face-first into the Goose. The bird had chased him all the way from Burgess to Burk, and back. Whenever it managed to get close, he'd be pulled in the most tightest deathgrip of the century. He's still terrified, whenever he sees the large Goose from afar. He can't remember much of the 'master', but he does remember the Goose being scolded, or, what sounded like scolding. He wishes it to be scolding, because it was kind of terrifying. )

He takes a seat on one of the table chairs near the employee-only door, nearly on the other side of the bookstore. Liana had taken to casting glances at him every few seconds, and idly reading a book of her own. Jack didn't mind the looks, afterall, he got a lot worse whenever someone on the streets recognized him, sometimes he had to use his staff for other things than throwing snowballs, but it was okay, he guessed. Let someone try to tackle him to 'become a guardian'. Pht, like that'll ever happen.

He opens the one book the cashier had suggested he read, only reading a few pages before slowly becoming morphed into the story. He thinks it's strange, when a book gives you almost the same visual as the television could. Maybe televisions were like brains themselves? Jack didn't know, he barely could get along well with technology unless it involved moonbeam charges or comet trackers.

Oh, yeah, comets. Jack had a strange fascination with shooting stars and their simple cousins, comets. He loved to watch the sky, staying up as late as he could, trying to spot them passing by.

He wishes he could do that; fly up up up to where no one had truly explored yet, to fly among stars, the planets, the suns as if they were his and his only. He would take different paths, each one looking for something new.

Adventure usually gave him a purpose, as adventuring was a lot more fun then trying to make a large statue of Sandman as a ballerina. ( Which, oddly enough, was still standing there in the middle of Corona, like some sort of trophy or something. He's heard Pitch had visited there last month, but yet the statue was left completely unharmed. Maybe the villain liked Jack's work. He silently giggles - he'd have to make one of Pitch standing beside it next time he visited Corona, see how the tall man liked being a ballerina along with Sandman. )

Though, he didn't know why, but whenever he'd try to fly up higher than he's ever had, he'd fall. and fast. it was like Tsar had cursed him, condemning him to stay.

Jack shoves that thought to the side, though. He really didn't want to feel like this world was some kind of larger cage for him, as that just makes him end up starting another mass blizzard. He remembers the huge fight he got himself caught in that day with a wince, and the tightening of his hands.

Bunny hadn't ever forgiven him for the incident, but then again why would he? - Jack wasn't very likable. Or, at least, Jack thought he was unlikable, because who would honestly say ' _aw you poor dear_ ' when Jack had frozen everyone's water supplies for months on end? - Burk was the only city prepared for such a thing, and so everyone had crowded in there like rats around a piece of cheese.

Shaking his head, he goes to reread the paragraph before him yet again, this time being the fifth time, as he had been lost in thought.

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 **This was written back in 2012, when I was a horrid writer, so bear with this cruddy thing haha.**

 **Also this was inspired by other fanfictions in this fandom. I cannot remember their names, but I'm sure one day I'll find them again. For now, please don't think I stole anything. This was a fiction I wrote for myself only, and so never really meant for it to be here.**

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 _Secrets to the Grave -_ by Tami Hoag

 _Seraphina_ \- by Rachel Hartman.

 _Gatekeeper_ \- I couldn't find the author name :c

 _The Alchemist_ \- by Paulo Coelho

 _Mother Goose_ \- I had decided that Jack is clueless about Katharine being mother goose, and assumes that the bird is actually the legend. A common mistake.

 _If you have a better summary let me know. I'm horrible at Summaries. Image cover not mine please note._

 _Also I have never read the William Joyce book series or whatever and so will constantly mess stuff up sorry oh so sorry._

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 **X if you don't like O if you did.**


	2. II

**Here's the second chapter. And the third. Also a little bit of the fourth, because I didn't feel like breaking it up. I'm lazy.** **Bare in mind that this is all going to turn a bit...weird. Fast. I don't know what went through my mind while writing this beast, but I think it's okay.**

 **Also hurray for no beta testers im so cool with all my typos yo**

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 **S.A.U.T**

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' _ **I** think I've heard that ballad,' I said. 'It's beautiful but it ends sadly_.' - Jack read on, the story just now seemed to be getting somewhere, before the chiming of the bell atop the front door gave away the sound of yet another customer. This place got quite a few customers, and Jack had found that while he had been endorsed into the world of scaly reptiles and haggard knights, that a chair had been drug to be beside him albeit to his left, as another person had joined his little hidey-hole to read themselves.

Looking up, he eyes the person for a few seconds, taking in the feminine build and following it up quickly with the long, brown hair. She had on a pair of reading glasses that were really thick-looking, and as she sat, reading a very thick tome, her legs occasionally fidgeted, as if she would stand up and walk away any time now.

Being so close to a stranger wasn't Jack's favorite thing, but he assumed that, like him, she had been too afraid to sit around the crowded couches on the other side of the shop, and had decided 'I'd rather sit over there with this guy then with ten other people'. He understood that excuse well enough, as he had used it before while near a campsite. ( The person who sat with him them had thought he was a camper, as he had his hood up and his staff laying in the weeds to his right. They had sat next to one another until midnight, and to tell the truth, that silent companionship was probably the best thing ever, to Jack. He hopes that person is doing okay. )

"Oi." the customer - a large man with the physical appearance of a model, and hair a dark grey, shouts, trying to get Liana's attention. The stranger next to Jack also looks up, seeming to eye the man with scrutiny before going back to reading. Jack envied her will of getting priorities done, but he couldn't stop watching the new man. ( The man reminded him of the Easter Bunny, with the slight accent he had given off. He wonders if the guy knew the rabbit. Probably not, Jack shakes his head a hair, Bunny wouldn't like the guy as the man had no form of weapon on him. Bunny always said that weapons were a big yes when you went out. He told Jack himself when the teenager had frozen the rabbit to the ground for a few hours. )

"Oh! Ast - "

"SH." the man shushes, looking around the store a minute. "Don't you go using that name around 'ere, sheila. Some guys know my name, so it wouldn't be entirely safe."

"Well, alright." Liana sighs. "Hammy, tell me, what are you doing here? - You told me you didn't like to read 'normal' books!"

The man flashes off a smirk. "Andy told me to tell you that we were gettin' together tonight. Saint decided we'd be doin' the lookouts while he works out the new car for a mint."

"Well actually -" Liana blinks for a minute. " - I was really hoping to stay here for tonight. You see, I have company I was hoping would stay a while for dinner."

"Who? Black or White?" the man - ' _Hammy_ ' - asks, looking around at the ten other people who were studying books, deciding if they'd buy them or not. His eyes manage to cross over to the hidey-hole, completely ignoring both Jack and the stranger. Jack huffs in a laugh, causing the stranger to look up, fix him a glance, and the go back to pretending he didn't exist. - If that guy had been playing hide and seek he would have been looking for so long, everyone would have gone home and left him there, looking for them all, until he finally caught on.

"Greyish?" Liana says sheepishly, poking her index fingers into each other in nervousness.

"What d'you mean 'greyish'?" the man arches an eyebrow, frowning at her in concern.

"Well, more white when he feels like it, and more black when he wants?" she shrugs. looks around, also ignoring the hiding space, Jack thanks whatever guardian angel he may have had with him today quietly.

"So what you're saying is..." the man looks around with her, noticing her searching glances, and the way she shifted. Jack wonders if 'Hammy' is the evil boyfriend who plans to kick Jack out at the first chance he got. He looks like the type, actually. "That it's a thing to discuss tonight." he states firmly, as if commanding, as he crosses his arms.

Liana sighs. "I guess so. Do you think grey would like a happy meal or something, though? - It looks so poorly fed..."

Jack wonders if she is talking about him, or a stray cat she found behind the building. He was sure that when he had walked around the shop that there was no sight of a black, white, and grey cat anywhere, or he would had tried to play with it.

"How poor we talkin' 'bout?" the man smiles, then, leaning his crossed arms against the counter top.

"Uhm," she goes to organize a few books to her right, shifting them around a bit as she continues. "A twig. A uhm...It's bad looking, okay? I'm sure once you see it up close you'd know."

"Is it here?"

Liana turns around quickly, an orangey-brown book still in hand. She goes to also lean halfway against the counter herself.

"Yes?" she then answers, looking a bit more nervous and fidgety. "Please don't worry, they're so white right now it's like snow."

Jack winces, because, ouch, way to give a guy away. They must surely be talking about him. The man seems to not catch on though, as he stands up then, straightening his back with a small pop, letting his hands fall to his side again. "If you think so. Give the grey a dollar or two, let 'm decide what he wants, while we go off to look tonight."

Wait...money? Food? - Why, oh _why_ was Liana willing to give him these things? Couldn't she buy the lie that he had food? He knows he couldn't fight with her though, as she had a look of fire in her eyes, like she was somehow a dragon ready to breathe a breath of burning care and love his way, no matter how many times he would go to swing his wooden, crooked sword at her.

God, he sighs inwardly, he really needs to calm down on this dragon book. It's making him feel, and sound, like a geek. Almost. He says almost because the person sitting next to him had a thick, heavy tome that was all about aliens, for crying out loud. He makes sure not to stare, remembering the rule that staring was rude. It was, right? - He was pretty sure he'd stared at all kinds of woman and men alike, and none of them really would bat an eye at it. Some would even begin to walk funnily, or swing their hips a bit. He wouldn't mind knowing what that was all about, because each time he laughed they would give him a harsh glare.

"Anyway I'm gon' hop off on yeah." The man says. "If anything happens to you, snatch a biter, alright?"

"I will." Liana nods at him. "I'll call you when I close up shop, so you know I'm okay."

The man, with a wave of his hand, steps back outside, causing the bell to sound off yet again, in it's horrible shrill chime, causing Jack to flinch. He stands, and places the books he had in his lap across the top of a few boxes. He quietly walks over to the cashier as she continued to organize the books nearest the register.

It takes him a lot of time to walk up to someone, mostly, but right now he felt like he could trust Liana enough, to know that she won't suddenly turn around and snap at him for being too close or too far. He also figured that she wouldn't mind.

"Hey Liana?"

She turns her head to looks at him a moment before going back to jumbling the books around, and this time, in the correct order of author and alphabet, thank the lord. "Yes, sweet tooth?" she smiles.

Okay, odd name, Jack hums. "Was that your boyfriend just now?"

She quickly sputters, halting her task and laughing at the question, nearly dropping her book with her actions. "N-no! Goodness no!" she wheezes out, calming herself down into small chuckling. "He is Hammy, my friend. A very good engineer. You know him?"

Jack shakes his head. "No." then, he remembers. "Hey, why was he saying something about looking? - He's not going to hurt anyone, is he?"

Liana laughs.

"Dear lord no! If he wanted to hurt someone he'd mostly do it verbally. He's a huge teddy bear when you get to know him!"

"Oh." Jack shifts his staff, to where it leaned against his shoulder again. "Well, I was going to say that I'm leaving now. People to kill, time to see...wait...no, never mind, no. I think it goes the other way around." he says, scratching behind his neck nervously.

The woman looks as if he really was going to go out and kill someone, before she quickly put up a smile, hiding her concern. "Well, before you go I was wondering if you'd have dinner with me? I was heading out to grab a quick meal - I could grab you one too."

Of course, asking someone to have dinner with you was like asking someone out on a date, in all actuality. But at the same time, Liana didn't seem to really be interested in him that way. Jack tilts his head ever so slightly to the side, pondering over the meaning. He smiles at her, deciding that it'd definitely be worth the struggle for a little bit of food. He hasn't eaten in what seemed like forever, so the fact he was getting free food was a good one.

"Sure!" He happily answers. "Where to?"

Liana looks hesitant for a moment, hands wringing into themselves as if she had a small stress ball hidden between them or something.

"Why don't you pick, sweet tooth?"

To say Liana had been mildly surprised at Jack's choice of dinner was an understatement. But, after the both of them had eaten their ice cream from the ice cream shop down the road from the book store, Liana had grabbed him by the sleeve and literally drug him to this one restaurant called Golden*mark. The food was awesome, though. ( Even if he couldn't eat all that much. He could barely finish up the first meal, so when they brought out the cake, he had to decline, as did Liana. She really didn't prefer sweets. )

They had both agreed to meet up tomorrow, though. Sometime around lunch, which confused Jack a little. He knew that people had usual meal times, but he honestly didn't know what time it was, as he didn't own a clock, or a watch. Plus, the clock nearest the police station was being destroyed so it could be rebuilt with a solar function or something. Which made that option useless.

He sits on a branch atop an old Oak tree he had decided would make a perfect place to nap. Sometimes, he'd just perch upon his staff and fall asleep then and there, but today he didn't think it'd be such a wise move. He didn't know Liana enough to tell if she would follow him, mug him, or worse. So he was pretty much hiding. The sleeping spot was just an extra bonus.

The snow falls down heavily, each snowflake fat and happy in their short, short lives. It created a kind of fog some distance away, and blocked out the sky, so the moon - and the sun - couldn't even begin to glance through. Tonight would have been the most perfect to cause a scene, actually, but talking to Liana and being drug around to look at a few restaurants had made a kind of tiredness form in the pit of his mind.

He loved it when people noticed him, he really did, but he didn't expect socializing to be such a tiring event. Let alone following someone at the same time as talking to them.

Now, Jack could walk a billion miles if he so wanted to, without even breaking a sweat. But when you're actually looking around at things, taking in the colors of the neon lights, or the large skyscraper windows which were mostly lit up as people turned on their lamps, lights, and other things...it was like walking into a dream, actually.

He's never noticed how beautiful a city could be, as he had never wandered around to look at it from the angle Liana had showed him. The lights for Christmas made him feel a little bad for freezing them solid last year, but everything else was so...spontaneous? Wondrous?

Yes. Wondrous. Even the neon signs had caused him to smile.

Closing his eyes, perched on the tree limb, he hangs his staff on the limb above him, trusting the tree to his only weapon. He shifts to where his right leans against the large tree, letting it support him. Jack lets himself be comforted by the tree before preparing for sleep.

Of course, until something smacks right dab into the tree, all of a sudden, and causes him to fall with a yelp and a ' _foomp_ ', as he falls gracelessly into a large snow pile below.

"Ouch!" Jack hears through the makeshift muffler the snow had made around him. He goes to sit up, quickly looking for the source of the noise.

Next to where he fell, a man about his height is rubbing his head. The man's hair is white, and he seems to glow an odd aura that makes the snow glitter and shine like dream sand. The man is wearing some sort of odd black suit. Or something. It had all sorts of weird glowing rocks attached to the shoulders and so on, so Jack didn't know.

The man stops as soon as he noticed he was being watched, eyes Jack up and down, and quirks an eyebrow at him in question, glancing to the tree then to Jack.

"Uhhh..." Jack says, rubbing his hand over his hair, shaking off the few leftover snowflakes that clung to him like a lifeline. "Who are you? - are you some kind of _wizard_?"

The other seems to laugh, but making little to no noise. Huh, Jack tilts his head, he could have sworn he heard the man say something a moment before. Why act mute now?

'Glowing man' gestures to himself, and then bows, as if in greeting a king or something, before standing up. He takes in Jack's stunned silence for another minute, before throwing up an eyebrow, and gesturing at the tree, then to Jack.

"Nice to meet you?" the stunned teen greets, almost in question, still sitting in the snow mound, too confused to stand up. "Uhm...I was in the tree." he draws the corners of his mouth into a smile, or, at least, he hoped it resembled a smile and not a grimace. He'd have to work that out.

"I'm Jack by the way."

The man gives the tree a look once more, nodding to the staff that hung near the top.

"That's..." Jack stops himself, hesitating. "That's my staff."

Taking the answer in for another second of silence, the man quickly shuffles his foot around in the snow, before bending down and picking up a large staff of his own from the ground. The staff was kind of dark colored, but with a few of those same glowy rock things attached to it. Jack wonders if they were some kind of glow rocks the man found at a thrift store and glued them onto himself. Who knows.

The man waves his own staff a bit, grinning ear-to-ear.

"Woah..." Jack lets out. "That's one pointy end." he says, then, noticing the end on the ground had an oddly shaped tip to it. Jack wonders if maybe he should try to form an icy end like that to his own staff, as it certainly would help him out if he needed to defend himself from the few horrid people in the streets.

Walking forward a bit, the man offers Jack a hand, never ridding himself of the smile on his face. Jack reluctantly takes it in his, letting the man help him up. The man's hand was a tad bit larger than his own, and, to Jack's surprise, not entirely warm at all. Though, Jack blames the gloves the man wore.

The man then bends down a bit, running the pointed end of his staff across the ground.

"N...I...G..." Jack reads off. "Night? Wait...Nightlight? Is that your name?"

The man - no - Nightlight nods, before tilting his head a bit at Jack, as if in questioning.

"Oh, yeah..." Jack chuckles dryly, rubbing his hand through his hair. "If you're wondering, I was sleeping...In...In the tree."

Nightlight's eyebrows seem to raise, as if in surprise, then looks up to the staff still up the Oak, and back to Jack, before pointing at the tree.

"I can't get it down. If I fly without my staff I go too fast, and climbing is hard to do." Jack explains, shrugging.

The man gives him a smile, and a thumbs up before he starts to gently float into the air. Jack lets his mouth hang open for a second, before closing it. This man can fly? How?

Nightlight lifts the staff carefully from the limb, and lands back in front of the other. Letting Jack take the staff, watching as the other seems to hug it close, as if it were a live being. The man seems to understand that notion, a bit, as he didn't raise any eyebrows toward Jack, thankfully.

"Thanks! - er - I mean, I mean, thank you." Jack smiles, feeling his fingers around the staff a bit. He could have sworn he'd have to ask someone from the streets to help him out again, and that was hard to do when you didn't have your trusty weapon with you, even if it was just an over-glorified stick.

Nightlight smiles, and nods. Then he lets his smile drop for a second, wearing a serious-like but happy expression, before gesturing for Jake to come closer. Jack steps a step forward, only to have the man shake his head, and flap his hand toward himself, and then to jack.

"I don't understand. Sorry."

The man glows strongly for a minute, as if in slight frustration, before taking his own staff and writing in the snow again.

"Follow?" Jack asks after reading. He chuckles again. "You're not going to lead me into an alleyway somewhere to steal my liver, are you?."

Nightlight quickly shakes his head, seeming disgusted at the question itself. Jack was surprised the man didn't have whiplash from that. The man then does the gesture again, this time pointing to Jack, and then to himself, afterward throwing a thumb over his shoulder, seeming to ignore the statement about Jack's name. The man must already know him, Jack thinks.

"Okay..." Sighing, Jack begins to follow the man out of the small park area. The man smiling at him the entire time. "But if you do try to murder me I have a staff. And a grenade in my pocket. Also a mini rocket launcher. And a whole army in my hood." Jack jokingly lies. Nightlight seems to catch on quick and laughs another silent laugh.

They walk for a little while, side-by-side on the walkway by the roads, Jack occasionally slowing down the look at all the bright lights and the few people who would travel out at this time on foot, before nearing a large tower-like skyscraper. Nightlight nears the doors, before noticing Jack had stopped. He turns around and gives Jack an impatient look.

"Wait...we're going in there?" Jack says, looking at the fancy-cut bushes in front of the doors, and the fancy designs on the door. They must have had a professional come and paint the door with a Christmas theme, because he could have sworn those deer looked real.

Nightlight sighs, then, and nods, lending out a hand to Jack.

"Pht. I don't need to hold anyone's hands. I know what I'm doing." Jack says. ( But he takes the hand, and allows the other to guide him, despite his chilly words. If anyone asked he'll pretend he was seriously short-sighted or something. )

They end up taking the stairs when Jack gives the elevator a fearful look. Nightlight didn't seem to be annoyed at how many stairs they had to climb up, but Jack was pretty sure anyone could be annoyed at having to climb this high. Each stair seemed old, but luckily they were made of some kind of concrete, meaning it'd take more weight than a toothpick to topple them over. Not that Jack was afraid of the fall, in fact, he thinks he might enjoy the thrill.

Nightlight only looks at him occasionally, which Jack inwardly is thankful for. The glowing man seemed to have some strange understanding about him when it came to Jack, that the teen wondered if he had a out-of-the-bushes stalker of sort. But, well, he just couldn't think of Nightlight hiding in a bush. The guy glows brightly, what with all those weird rock things on him. ( Plus the guy would stick out like a sore thumb in a crowd, just like Jack. So, having Nightlight as a stalker is probably a false assumption. )

They eventually get to the fifth floor, which held a few rooms marked with numbers on them. Jack thinks they might be office rooms, as they looked pretty well-off in design. Maybe Nightlight led him to be arrested for the whole 'I'm going to bury this high school in snow' thing Jack did three days ago. The students certainly didn't mind much, though, so maybe Nightlight didn't mind?

Gosh, Jack needed to socialize more. Not knowing things about other people is seriously frustrating. All well, if Nightlight goes to get Jack arrested he'll just freeze the man to the floor - along with whomever tries to arrest him as well.

They walk down the hallways for two minutes, before stopping at a door.

"Uhm..." Jack says, sheepishly, as Nightlight lets go of his hand and goes to unlock it. "You're not hiding any bad guys in there, are you?"

Nightlight gives him a pointed look, and then swings the door open on his way in. He stops a second, realizing Jack hadn't followed him inside. He quirks an eyebrow at him for like the fifth time during their trip together, before gesturing Jack to come in.

When Jack does, he notices the room isn't an office, or just a room. It seemed like a mini house or something, which Jack found odd. He heard that skyscraper-like buildings all had offices in them, with little stalls and evil bosses and stuff. Not weird houses within a house.

The walls of the living room area were painted a tan-ish color, and the furniture seemed to be antique-like, from what Jack could guess. All in all, the place did have a nice feel about it. He wondered if every other room here felt like it welcomed you like this as well.

"Neat place." Jack muttered, taking off his old tennis shoes near the wall by the doorway. He remembered that kind of manner at least, so maybe he could remember other mannerisms. Hah, as if. "Why did you bring me here, though?"

Nightlight smiles, then, and waves his hand dismissively.

Tilting his head to the right a bit in confusion, "I don't understand." Jack says, earning himself a slight, funny pout from the other, which made him chuckle.

The glowing man sets aside his own staff by one of the couches, then turns to Jack and beckons him to do the same, with an eye roll.

"Okay." Jack shrugs, setting it carefully down. "You never answered my question."

"Nightlight, is that a new friend? - OH!" A young woman gasps from the stairway, hands flying to her mouth. Her hair was brown as were her eyes, which Jack found familiar, in a way.

Nightlight holds his hands up, as if calming her. He glows just a bit more, making the few shadows in the room dance. He makes a soft shushing noise, before gesturing to Jack, and then back to her.

She seemed to understand him, though, as she nods. "Oh...But, Nightlight...You know who he is."

Of course, Jack's mouth twitches, he forgot that many, many people who lived in these parts knew about him somehow. Maybe it really was a bad idea to start talking and interacting with people today. Maybe it was Tsar giving him a big 'I don't care'. Who knows.

Nightlight gives her a scolding look, which makes her calm down.

"Look," she says, looking to Jack now. "if you cause any trouble - "

"Don't worry," Jack raises his hands. "I'll be on my way - " Nightlight gives him the look now. And to be honest with you, that look seemed to portray an older brother giving his younger siblings a look of disappointment. It made Jack nearly squirm.

"Okay, never mind, then." Jack shrugs, forcing a small grin upon his face. "I can stay for a little while..."

Nightlight arches an eyebrow toward him, before turning back to the woman, and crossing his arms.

"Uhm..." The woman bends down to pick up the heavy tome she had dropped not but a second ago. She stands up and studies it's pages for a minute, before smiling at Jack. "I'm Kathy..." Another look of Nightlight's is sent her way. "Okay, fine, Katharine."

"I know who you are, though." she continues before Jack could even open his mouth. "So you don't need to introduce yourself." she sighs. "I really wish Nightlight wouldn't always bring in strays from the streets." she seems to mutter to herself, unknowing that both Jack and Nightlight could hear her perfectly. ( Jack doesn't want to think about it too much. If Nightlight wanted to offer the couch or something for the night, that's fine. Better than a tree or on top of a dumpster somewhere. He really didn't appreciate how this woman had acted to him, but he's sure she was just tired. )

Nightlight rolls his eyes at her, then places a hand on Jacks head, while giving her an arched eyebrow and a smile. It seemed this man would communicate to 'Kathy' by flickering the weird light that illuminated around him. Jack figures that learning how to understand that would be a waste of time, though, as it was more than likely that he would be gone by morning. He'd make sure of it.

Not that Jack didn't like that people would try to help him, but he just felt so trapped when they started to apply rules, or watch him, trap him inside like he'd do something wrong. He inwardly cringes, writhes against the thought of doing something wrong, and upsetting someone as nice as someone who'd tolerate him. It eats at him until he eventually leaves. It doesn't bother him much anymore, after running away from about eight homes now, that had offered companionship.

But so far he quite liked the outdoors, sleeping in trees, talking to stray animals like himself. Of course, he wasn't an animal, but he understood them well enough that they all got along. Plus, the animals seemed to love his company on the chilly seasons he would follow in on. Cuddling with stray kittens = win in his book.

Katharine sighs again. "Alright, he can stay for now, but no funny business!" she huffs at the end, nodding her head at Jack as if to emphasize her point.

"Look, I didn't really want to come here, myself, if that makes you feel any better." Jack rubs the back of his neck, managing to dislodge Nightlight's hand. "I promise I won't midnight snack or steal your undies or something!" he laughs to her expression at that, as Nightlight smile on, amused.

"What time is it anyway?" Jack questions, pulling on the sleeves of his worn hoodie over his hands, trying to commit to another habit, as he did not have his staff to hang on to. at the moment.

"Eight? - Don't you have a watch?" Katharine says, walking over to the couch. "Oh, and you can sit down. We only bite if you bite first."

"Bite?" Jack smiles, confused. "What would I bite? The couch? Nightlight? Your tacky wallpaper?" he laughs, as he follows Nightlight's lead and take a seat on one of the couches. There were two couches, so, as expected, Katharine had sat on the one across the two. She places her book neatly on the coffee table.

"Ugh, you know what I mean." Kathy answers.

"Not really?" Jack shifts. "Anyway, it's Eight? Wow, and I was going to sleep right then..."

A glowing flicker catches Jack's eye as he looks to his right, where Nightlight sat. The man was making strange movements with his hands, while flickering. It would have looked funny to Jack, but by the way the man looked serious, and that being directed at Jack, he didn't think laughing would give him any gold stars.

That didn't help the muffled giggling he couldn't manage to hold back.

The man stops immediately, looking at the giggling teen as if he had grown a second head, or had been speaking an unknown language. He tilts his head at Jack, allowing a small grin to play at his lips, even with the strange concern in his eyes.

"Why are you laughing at Nightlight?" Katharine stops fiddling with cleaning her glasses.

"He - he looked funny!" Jack snorts, stumbling back into another giggle-fit as the glowing man makes a few more movements of his hands.

"He's signing? What's funny about that?"

Breaking from his giggling, Jack wipes the faint tear from his right eye. "What's signing? Is that why he was moving his hands? Can't he talk?"

"Uhm, yes. Signing is using ones hands to communicate." Katharine says, then moves her fingers in the strange way too. "See? I just told you that your hair is white."

"Oh. Neat!" Jack looks at his hands. "You think I could do that?"

"I don't know - " Nightlight interrupts her sentence though, as he waves an arm to grab Jack's attention, and nods with a large smile upon his face, happy that the other wanted to learn.

"Cool!" Jack smiles back.

"And Nightlight can talk." Katharine explains. "He just does it in his own language. Moon language or something. It's a silent language to humans, so you wouldn't be able to hear it."

"Huh." Jack muses. "I could of sworn that he said something when we met."

Katharine shrugs, placing the glasses on her face and opening her books up, trying to find her page. "Must have been your imagination."

His imagination? - He could have sworn by five Easter bunnies that Nightlight had said something...what did he say again?

Who cares. It obviously wouldn't help out in the long run. Also what the hell are these people? They look sort of like...

" - Are you with the guardians?" Jack asks.

"Huh? What brought that question up?" Katharine flips a couple more pages. "And yes, we WERE with the guardians. We're taking a break for a while. So mind your manners, please."

Oh God they wanted manners. Jack inwardly groans, sliding down from his seat a bit. The only manners he could remember were to take your shoes off at the door and never hit a lady. This will either be the worst home he has stayed in, or one of those memorable ones where he messed up big time.

Nightlight quirks an eyebrow up at him, but doesn't bother 'saying' anything.

"What was Nightlight trying to tell me?" Jack looks at the strange coffee table, noting the small designs on it, that looked to be either a nifty old type of symbol, or lettering. He wasn't too sure.

"He wanted to know why you were sleeping in a tree." Katharine answers dutifully. She must have been some sort of teacher, Jack thinks. She seems to know all the answers for things, so far.

"And I actually do too, now. Aren't villains supposed to belong in evil lairs having evil bed to house their evil dreams?"

Jack laughs at that. "No! - Okay, I admit I did have an 'evil' lair out there somewhere, but I lost that when I went flying around Egypt."

"As I heard." Katharine nods, motions for him to continue, offering him a small smile of her own.

"I...erm...I was late to go home and so I decided trees?"

"That's a pretty poor excuse." she crosses her arms, then takes in Jack's appearance for a second. Her eyes seem to glint with a strange glow, that must have been learnt from Nightlight perhaps.

"Wait...do you have a home?"

Ugh. The almighty question pierces through thine almighty brain making almighty Jack frost almighty reluctant to freakin' answer. Maybe he could just -

"And don't lie either! I'll make Nightlight dunk you in hot water!"

Okay, scratch all the ideas. Try something different -

"Well I was offered a place to stay around town." Jack shrugs. "I was going to go there tomorrow when I felt okay enough."

"Who offered?" Katharine asked, as Nightlight quickly does his strange light show. Katharine nods at Nightlight before speaking for him. "And where is this place? - it could be a human trafficking ring for all you know!"

"Well..." Jack stumbles around for the words. "Liana was a nice bookseller across town. I...She was nice."

"Liana? - OH! Her!" Katharine is smiling, now. Possibly the first real smile Jack had seen from her so far. "She is a very nice person. Though, her bookshop is kind of her second home...maybe we could all meet up tomorrow."

What's a second home, Jack wanted to ask, but seeing the pleased look on the woman's face made him keep that thought to himself. Still, having a second home? Did Liana have a second family as well? Jack wonders if that means she has more...what's the word?...familiarity? No...it'll come to him someday.

"You know her?"

"Of course I know her!" Katharine claps her hands together. "I buy all my books from her and we work together sometimes too. She's such a wonderful woman. You're lucky you were able to catch her store open, she usually closes at this time of year due to...things."

Things, Jack chuckles. He knew what Katharine meant. He's truly surprised though that they had not called the police or anything on him, as he was wanted for vandalism and several other large words he couldn't bother to remember. Trespassing was probably the only one that was really an accident, but everything else was more true than anything.

"So...how are the guardians? - Bunny isn't still mad about the statue is he?" Jack giggles quietly, remembering vividly how the Rabbit's face contorted into such amazing expressions over it! - He'd have to try that again!

"Oooh he is steaming raw over that. I am too, as that wasn't something a lady would like to see all over the web."

"Figures he'd be angry. He should try to get the corncob out of his butt and smile for once." Jack crosses his legs, trying to get comfortable. He could hear the wind outside slowly singing a low note past the other large buildings. If he'd stop and listen long enough he could understand the wind a bit, but right now the windows were closed, and he's sure no one here besides him would want to open it. "I might try that again, though. That was probably the best thing I had done. Chock it up on my gold-branded list of awesome things to do for me will you?"

Katharine smiles at that. "Be careful, Bunny has your face all over the most wanted website. Everyone all the way from here to Berk knows about you so far."

"Ooooo." Jack sits up straighter at that. "What's my bounty?"

"Well, he wants you alive, so there's no reward for you being...yeah." She itches her cheek, looking down to her book. "The last I looked he offered up about five thousand in cash."

"Wow for that much I would throw myself over there." Jack laughs. "But I don't think he'd pay me!"

"I don't think so either." Katharine shakes her head.

A comfortable silence blooms up between the three. Jack rests his head on his fist, leaning against the arm of the couch. Nightlight would occasionally look at the other two, thoughtful expression on his face, as he fiddled with a notepad he had been writing on. Katharine continued her reading, flipping pages far too fast for someone to be truly reading. She must be skimming the book for answers on something, Jack assumes.

Silences like this make his brain run a thousand miles a minute, sometimes. Right now was no exception as he was constantly reminded about meeting Liana around 'lunch time' as she had put it. Maybe he could ask Nightlight about the time lunch is normally eaten at. He's sure the glowing man knew.

"Jack?"

Jack is snapped from his thoughts, as he looks to Katharine, who has a strange expression on her face. He wonders if maybe she'd kick him out now, and is fully prepared to slip on his shoes and grab his staff to fly away. In fact, he sits up a bit more, waiting for the signal to leave.

"Yeah?"

"Where - urm - where do you come from?" Katharine closes her book.

"Burgess? I flew in sometime last week."

"No! - no. I mean, like..." She glance toward Nightlight a minute. "I mean where did you come from? Where is your first home?"

Wait. First home? Jack frowns. If he had a say he would say with Ninna and her strange biker husband on a little lonely and quiet, peaceful ranch house over by the Leite river, watching over fields and fields of cattle as they lazily graze around, going about their short, short lifespans.

He'd say that he was needed, on that ranch. He'd say he was a son, and maybe even a brother, if Ninna ever considered having another child.

But of course, that would be more than lying to them. He'd also be lying to himself. He sucks in a breath for a moment, before letting it out in a quiet sigh. Perhaps he could tell them about the moonclipper? - No, his mind barks. The moon is the guardian's 'maker'. Katharine and Nightlight had said they were with the guardians, even if they were not right now. It was dangerous.

So, he goes back to the most guilt-eating thing he could go to, and lies.

"I don't know where I came from." he shrugs, trying to look as casual as could be. "One moment I woke up on a frozen lake. The next I was walking."

More like running, he thinks. His escape pod he had managed to nab from the moonclipper had slammed right into some lonely stretch of forest, in the middle of a large lake. He only had moments to spare before Tsar would notice one of his 'specimens' had gone missing, and so, with haste only fueled by adrenaline alone, he had run.

And run, and run, and run. All the way to an old abandoned warehouse somewhere. He recalls the fear, and the thrump bump tump of his heart as it seemed to have been trying to beat it's way out of his chest at the fear of being placed back in a cell, darkened with no light, and no choice but to be examined like a strange creature.

Once he had tasted freedom, though, after a few weeks of heart-stopping terror, and hiding, he couldn't think of ever going back. - He didn't even know he could fly. That was the best experience. Also the wind. She was nice, even if it was hard for her to speak to him.

"No one told you anything? Was anyone there?" Katharine presses on, not noticing the uncomfortable look on Jack's face. Nightlight took notice, of course, but refused to cut through the conversation yet.

"My name."

No. Not really. The wind made up his name. His 'true' name had been a number. Two hundred seventeen B, M. He never understood what the initials were there for, but he can only guess at what they were. Maybe 'Big meanie', or 'Bunches Munches'. He didn't think those were what the initials stood for though, as Tsar rarely had any humor, from what he could remember from the glimpses he caught of the man.

"What is your name?"

"I thought you knew?" Jack laughs.

"I know Jack frost, but what is your actual name? Like, you can't be a villain without a villain name, and Jack frost is already up there, soo..."

"Uhm..." Jack looks at the ceiling in thought, before snapping his eyes back to the woman. "Nope! That's my name. Jack Frost. The wind told me so."

That was a truth. The wind asked for a name, and decided it didn't like those strange numbers. It told him to wait three days for the name it would give him. Three days later and it came back, whispering a happy song about Frost, and a boy named Jack.

"The wind?" Katharine looks confused. "The wind doesn't speak."

"It sings, though. It sung my name." He shrugs, again. "Anyway where are you from? You look like you'd be more comfortable somewhere less...city-ish."

"I came from Santoff Clausen. A town, filled to the brim with wonder and happiness." Katharine answers, smiling fondly at the memory. She then shakes her head.

"Kosmotis Pitchner destroyed it, though. He killed about ten people, as the others were mostly wounded."

Jack looks to the floor, then. "Sorry." - He knew apologizing wouldn't help out what had happened, but e felt the need to apologize.

"No need." she waves her hand dismissively. "It happened so long ago."

"What about you Nightlight? Did this Kosmo guy do something to you too?" Jack tilts his head at the glowing man.

Nightlight shrugs, making a face as if bored, and then waves both his hands as Katharine had done.

"Not really?" Jack sniffs, reaching up a hand and wiping at his brow. Pulling it back he notices the sweat on the back of his hand. They must have the heaters on full blast, he realizes. Katharine must feel cold, as she is also bundled up in sweaters. Nightlight is only in his weird black suit. It doesn't look like it'd be warm.

Jack glances around a bit, looking at the few pictures on the end table, to the strange crystal hanging on the wall, and then to Nightlight.

"Do you guys have children? - You have tons of pictures of them, no offense."

Katharine laughs at that. "No. We're immortal-like. As in children can't really be done by the normal terms." she rubs her eye for a moment, stifling a yawn. "Tsar Lunanoff was supposed to be helping with that, but he said something had gone wrong like four hundred years ago. We'd try again from scratch, but with Pitchner snooping around here and there Tsar hasn't been able to answer us."

Jack stiffens at the name of his once-warden, Tsar. He only caught glimpses and snippets of the strange short man, but it was terror-filled glimpses, mostly. Tsar wasn't the thing he was most afraid of, but it was the other things the man kept with him. Robots and experiments and...and...he shudders a bit in remembrance.

Nightlight pats him on the shoulder, which causes him to flinch. Nightlight pulls back like Jack had just burned him, and gives the teenager a concerned look.

"What's wrong?" the woman across from them asks, frowning slightly, eyebrows crinkled up in worry.

"Ah - nothing. I must be tired." Jack passes off with a smile. "How does he make children?" he then questions, mostly to get the attention off of him and onto another subject.

"He takes something of our DNA and then usually uses magic for the rest." she shrugs a shoulder, before pulling a small blanket toward her - how could she be cold? its like ninety in here! Just seeing her with all those layers on is making Jack faint from this heat. He rubs at his forehead with a sleeve.

"What does he...what does he do if they fail? His creations?" He hesitates a bit. He tries not to let his nervousness at this show, instead trying to look comfortable. "D...does he...lock them away? Kill them?"

"What?" Katharine sits up straight, now, as if shocked he would presume Tsar do such a thing. "No! - Well...I really don't know. He never really fails. You should see Groundhog's son. Cute little guy." she suddenly tilts her head to the side, and takes her glasses off to place them by the lamp to her left.

"What brought that question up? And are you okay? - You look like you're going to be sick or something."

Sick? No, not really. His heart was beating a bit too much right now, but that was because he didn't like thinking of Tsar Lunanoff all that much anymore. It was like a Christian talking about hell - A terror one tries not bring up. He looked it up once, his small fear, and figures it might be a Post Traumatic...Dess border? Stress distorter?

Meh. He can't remember.

"I..." he stops. Should he tell them?

Nightlight looks so nice, and he was nice enough to bring Jack inside of his home without worrying about anything. Katharine looked just the same, and even offered him a place to sit, which was rare at some of the places he was drug to. Should he tell them what horrors he had to witness? to feel?

No, he decides.

After all, he'll only be here for tonight. Tomorrow he was going to Lianas place, tell her no as politely as he could, and fly off to Burk. Burk needed some snow, plus the place was so primitive in their inventions that they couldn't whap Jack around as badly as the people in Burgess could.

"I just...I really must be tired. I don't know what brought that question up." he says, finally. "It's also a bit warm in here..."

"You can't handle the heat?" Katharine quickly gets up, a bit too quickly, in Jack's opinion. "Allow me to grab you a cup of ice." she says, taking off to the small-ish kitchen, leaving Nightlight alone with Jack.

Nightlight gestures a bit with his hands, glowing in his own fluttering way. Kind of like a lightning bug that would turn it's light on and off erratically.

"I don't understand." Jack says.

Nightlight huffs a minute, then he smiles a wide smile.

'hello'

Jack stops looking toward the other, as the looks around the room instead. That voice...

He turns to Nightlight. "Was that you?" he asks, leaning toward the other, as if trying to find out how the other did that without moving his lips.

Nightlight nods quickly, smiling ear-to-ear now. He jumps up from the couch, grabs onto Jacks hands, forcing him to stand as well, and spins the teenager around, joyously, laughing a silent-like laugh.

Jack, after his little shock, quickly laughs along with the other, feeling happy as well.

"You could have spoken to me before!" Jack laughs, as Nightlight stops spinning him around. Nightlight is nearly hopping from foot to foot, grinning at Jack as if Jack had cured world hunger or something. ( Which would never be true. He's sure his snow kills more plants than grows them. )

Katharine walks into the room, cup full of ice in hand, and stops as she eyes the two.

"Nightlight? What happened?"

Nightlight laughs another silent laugh, before throwing an arm over Jacks shoulders, and gesturing his hand over Jack, as if to say 'he is here! i like him'. He glows brightly as he does so, lighting the dim-like room with a nice rich glow.

"He can what?" Katharine rushes over to the both of them. Jack wants to step back, but Nightlight's arm tightens as he goes to do so, blocking his escape. Katharine looks him over, grabs his chin with her hand, tilts his head around as if observing.

She lets him go. Puts a stern look across her face, almost like a mother who had caught her child stealing cookies form the cookie jar.

"How?"

"Uhm." Was all he could answer. He was scared, now. Nightlight's arm across his shoulder should be helping, he knows, but right now it only reminds him of the restraints that...that man used to use on him. And the look on Kathy's face scared him, reminded him of the look on...on that man and - This heat scared him - Oh god the room scared him - was he going to be returned he doesn t wa nt to be -

Before he knows it, Nightlight has him sitting on the couch, in a chilly hug of his own, as Katharine quickly places a cold, and wet towel to the back of his neck. His breathes won't come in normally anymore and so he's left trying to wheeze in shallow and short breathes as good as he can. He's shaking, he notices. He tries to calm his body down, but no matter how calm he feels, the after affects of his breakdown stick.

Nightlight is making shushing noises in his ear, as Katharine has a cellphone in one hand, and a large bowl of ice in the other. He figures he must of blacked out through the small panic, as he didn't notice her leave for all that ice.

He closes his eyes for a second, holds in his breathe for the other. Nightlight is alarmed, as well as Katharine when they noticed he wasn't breathing anymore, but he quickly exhales, bringing his breathing to a more tolerable range.

He looks up from the embrace. "Er." He huffs, coughing a small bit to get the worried Nightlight's attention. Nightlight pauses, and draws back from holding the teenager. Looking the other over, scanning for anything wrong.

"Hey."

"Jack -" Katharine stands up, and rushes over to his side. She kneels down a bit, so they were sort of eye-level.

"What happened? Why did you panic? Are you okay -" Nightlight shushes at her, waving a hand a bit, as to calm her down. Jack should thank him someday. Maybe he could make the glowing man some kind of ice sculpture. Though he doubts the man would know what to do with it.

He lifts up a hand, to scratch at his nose. His hands still shake with the strange aftershocks of what had happened, but he managed.

"I got scared." he answers, refusing to lie to them about that. "I think."

"Why? Because I touched you or something?" Katharine quickly speculates, wringing her hands together, like Liana had done earlier that day, in worry. "I'm sorry."

"No. Uhm." Jack shakes his hands a bit, trying to rid them of the annoying shake in them. "It's weird." he rubs behind his neck. His teeth refused to stop chattering, making him a bit angry with his body at the moment.

"Please explain? - I don't want to go through that again." Katharine says, giving him a wide eyed look. Puppy eyes, a small part of him groans. His one most well known weakness.

And again? - He'd most likely never see these people again.

"I...was trapped?" Jack looks down, still rubbing his neck nervously. He kind of felt like running off outside, flying away from this strange environment with these strange people. He didn't like it here anymore, and it didn't feel welcoming. He felt like he was shoved in his dark, damp cage again, listening to the howls and moans from the other cages.

"Oh." She nods. "I understand. I boxed you in and Nightlight held you still." Nightlight looks down at him apologetically, and pats Jack gently on the back, as if saying sorry himself. "Sorry. We...we weren't expecting that." Katharine says after a moment.

"It's okay. I wasn't either." He smiles. "Don't tell the guardians!" he laughs, then. Pulling the mood into a happier one hopefully. "They'd shove me in a cave or something, thinking I'm claustrophobic!"

"We won't." Katharine responds. She places her hand over where her heart would be. "Cross our hearts. Your secret is safe with us. Just warn us next time, if you can okay? - Like maybe flex your fingers in a way or shout spaghetti or something."

"Okay!" He laughs. Katharine then hands him the large bowl of ice. "And yeah. I could probably form some kind of thing like that, a signal. Maybe. I don't know if I'd ever use it."

"Well...I'll let you stay in Nightlight's old room. He doesn't sleep like a normal person would, so he doesn't use the bed." she tells him, as he takes an ice from the bowl and chews on it. "Just tell him if you're too hot or something and he'll bring you a bowl of ice. We'll talk about that signal thing in the morning okay?"

"Okay." he nods slightly, then turns his attention to the glowing man next to him. "And you can use your weirdo language with me." he smiles, as Nightlight gives him a thumbs up and a grin of his own.

Standing up was probably the hardest thing after his sudden panic, as his legs seemed to not want to cooperate at all. They felt like jelly, to him, and kept shaking. He decided to sit back down on the couch for another minute after his few attempts.

Katharine only gives him a pitying look. Something Jack had usually gotten from all the homeless people on the streets. A lot of homeless were adults, as they'd usually try to get children to be put in 'the system' as they called it, to go off and be adopted. Jack didn't want to be handed down along the line of makeshift families, though, and refused to tell them his 'age'.

It was funny how people seemed to care even if they knew you were technically 'evil' in the books of law or something. Jack wonders if he should probably try to put them into 'the system' too. Does 'the system' even accept adults? - They usually lived to be like eighty or something, and Jack was probably two hundred or so.

Nightlight stands, then, and offers Jack a hand.

"Nah, I just need to sit for a minute." Jack says, munching on another piece of ice. He loved eating ice, actually. Ironic, right? He thought so.

"Anyway...uhm, did Liana set a time to meet with you? Tomorrow, I mean." Katharine tidies up her sweatshirt, which had gotten ruffled and slightly wrinkled over the past thirty minutes or so.

"She said lunch time." Jack says. "I was just going to go in the morning. That's lunch right?"

Katharine and Nightlight both blink at him as if he had started to morph into a rock or something else strange. Katharine glances at her small wristwatch a moment, as Nightlight sits back down onto the couch.

"Lunch time is at noon. As in Twelve." she says slowly, as if thinking of something else. "Do...do you want a watch? - I could go and buy you one. I might even have an old one somewhere..."

Jack shrugs, again. "I really don't care about time. - Isn't it almost twelve though? Kinda dark out, just saying."

"No. It's pretty close to midnight though." Katharine sniffs, as if a hair had gotten into her nose somehow. She grabs the book she had sat down earlier, and stands up.

"Anyway Nightlight can show you his old room. I'll be in the book room upstairs."

Book room? Jack raises an eyebrow. "Don't you have to sleep?"

"Not really. I could stay up for about a week before feeling anything." she smiles, as if proud of that fact. She walks past the couch Jack and Nightlight sat upon, heading up the stairway.

"Goodnight!" she hollers down at the two. Nightlight glows brightly for another minute before dimming down again, possibly his own 'goodnight'.

The room is silent as could be, then, and if Jack had his way he'd roll up underneath one of these old looking couches and curl up to sleep there. He knew if he tried though it'd probably bring up too many questions than he already had.

"So..." Jack starts, standing up slowly, thanking the wind that his legs stopped shaking so much. "You know I'm leaving tomorrow right?"

Nightlight gives him a large frown, and a thumbs down. Jack laughs, quietly.

"I can't just stay here. I wanted to head to Arendele. Give them a nice snowstorm or something before giving Burk a nice surprise statue in the morning. I still need to give bunny a second present!"

'But you - stay - right?"

Wait...what were those other words Nightlight had said?

"Excuse me? Could you repeat?" Jack tilts his head at the other as Nightlight goes to stand up again as well.

Nightlight sighs through his nose. "But you - stay -ever?" he repeats, changing the sentence a bit.

Jack figures he must not know most of the strange man's vocabulary. He can only grab snippets of it. He was able to get the gist of the question from the start, he figures, but those strange morphed words annoyed him slightly.

"I'll stay here tonight, if that's what you asked." Jack starts walking to where the kitchen supposedly was located, thinking to grab a drink from the sink, if he didn't accidentally freeze it or anything in the progress.

The kitchen is kind of small. Roomy enough for a table for four, and all the appliances one could need. It was small, but it had such a homey feeling to it. The floor was hardwood, and everything looked to always have that antique-like feel to it. Jack wonders how they managed to grab all of this stuff, but doesn't bother asking anymore questions tonight.

Nightlight goes to get himself a cup of juice or something from the fridge, as Jack fills the cup once filled with ice Katharine had brought out, with water. The ice had all but melted and she must have poured it back into the sink after noticing.

They head off upstairs shortly after the trip to the kitchen. The upstairs was sort of dark as there were no lamps around the hallway the stairs led to. The only light being giving off at the moment was from Nightlight, who would flicker from time to time. Jack would have to look up what Nightlight was someday. He's certain somebody had to know about glowing men.

Nightlight leads him into this large room. The room isn't too large, but it didn't have all that many things to fill it. A dresser, a bed with lots of pillows, and possibly a closet. That was mostly all in the room, besides the small shelf high above the bed containing books from small sizes to big. The largest was about as thick as his wrist, he figures. Definitely something to fret about, if that shelf decides to give way one night while someone is napping comfortably.

Maybe that was what all those pillows were for, he snickers inwardly.

"Okay, so where will you be? - If I need you, that is." Jack says, looking over the room with a hint of awe. - He really wouldn't need Nightlight's help at all, but the question was more to offer comfort to the strange spectral man, than to himself. Jack didn't need anything but sleep, and if something did come up, he'd figure out how to beat down the problem by himself.

Nightlight scratches at his head, ruining the long curls on it a bit.

'Down -' he answers.

"In your living room?"

'Yes!' Nightlight nods, grinning at Jack. The man acted as if no one could understand his language, truly. Maybe his language was some kind of old dead language of sorts. Who knows. But his happiness at it made Jack smile at the other.

"Okay cool! - I'll see you in the morning, I guess? You were going to bring me back to Liana right?"

'Yes.'

"Goodnight, and sleep tight." Jack chuckles.

Nightlight starts to sign, and stops, as if remembering the other couldn't read the signs, before smiling widely at the other.

'Forgot - night!'

"Er...Goodnight!"

With that, Nightlight heads to where Jack presumes 'the book room' is, leaving the other to his own devices. Jack turns around, after closing the door, and goes to sit on the overly-cushy bed. It barely bounced, as he sat, so he figured it was one of those new mattresses they were selling on the market these days.

The blankets were black but with dark blue shapes on the sides, all shapes as stars of some sort. Nightlight must have a fixation with stars or outer space. Not that Jack doesn't like it, it just reminds him of the disgusting sphere glowing outside somewhere above the clouds, watching the world.

He wasn't sure he could sleep, actually. His mind was bringing up things for him to do, and just wouldn't shut off.

Why did the other two in the 'house' quickly calm down after his panic like that? What if they tell the guardians about Nightlight inviting a stranger who happened to be a little nuisance? What if Liana wanted to hurt him?

What if he leaves?

What would happen, if he opened the door, and walked down that silent and dark hallway, to disappear out the living room's large window. up into the sky, never to see these people or mess with them again?

He sits still a moment, thinking over the endless list of possibilities in his head. Each action he thought of earning about ten pathways of things that may happen should he act them out. He does not notice the bright beam of moonlight blaring into his window, too deep in thought as he.

He could fly out of this window, he thinks. But it doesn't look as nice as the large balcony thing the living room held. Plus, it'd be hard to close once he was flying outside. He also didn't want the snow to get in the nice room he was given, only to turn the light colored carpet damp with water. He marks that off the list.

Staying would be nice, he supposes. These people were nice, they reminded him of someone, though. He bites his lower lip a bit in thought, trying to pinpoint a memory of people who were like them, only to come up short.

Staying would mean a place to stay, if he could convince them. But...he was so used to moving, to sleeping wherever, to flying and being hugged by the wind. - He doesn't think he could handle having to come back every night. Scratch that off his makeshift mental list as well.

He falls backwards, letting the bed support him as he lets out a long breathe he was holding in the last thought. He now realizes the moonbeam shining into the room, and if frightens him. He quickly rushes, faster than a heartbeat, to close the light curtains.

Screw you! his mind shouts out. He doesn't know what that meant, but he did watch as many people said the same thing to others when frustrated. He lets his mind say it, but doesn't shout it out, no matter how close he was to doing so.

"Sorry. But no." Jack manages to whisper out, as the moonbeam struggles to get passed the covering.

It's not that he had a large problem with being watched by the man in the moon, as he had been watched many a time. It's just, right now his mind wasn't going to shut off any time soon from today's excitement, and adding Tsar watching his failed experiment? No, no thank you. Jack wouldn't want to be reminded of those dark days anyway.

He couldn't think of anything Tsar had done that was completely good for him, besides keeping him alive, that is, until Jack had decided to jump off on his own. Keeping himself alive wasn't very hard, though, so Tsar wouldn't have any trouble with doing that, so that really wasn't anything good the man, or alien had done.

Jack turns slowly, and heads back to the bed, body fatigued but mind still playing a record he knew all too well.

He was worried, this was probably the first day of his being here that he'd spent this long with someone, enjoying things with people, and being included in a household without being reminded of how people hated him. He didn't...

He sighs.

He didn't want to see these things go away, these kind people. They were so nice to him! So, so very nice. But he felt like he didn't deserve them. He deserved a nasty look, a haughty glance, or a scoff of his name. He deserved it, he deserved it, he deserved it!

\- Because he was a failed attempt at something, he tells himself. A broken machine. A snowflake to a desert. An unwanted pet.

He lays down, curling up onto his right side, keeping his eyes away from the window, in fear he might open the curtains up and speak his mind up to the moonclipper, to do something stupid or say something stupid he'd never get a chance to change. The door was probably the better thing to watch, anyway, he decides.

Jack wishes he had taken his staff up with him, as his hands clench and un-clench in a habit of holding the old wood. He should have told a fib that it was part of him or something. Something tells him the lie wouldn't work, as he had gotten the staff stuck into a tree before without much trouble, but you never know.

He closes his eyes, then, trying to turn off the white noise of his mind, while also trying to slow his breath down, seeing if it would send him to unconsciousness quicker.

After about forty-five minutes of rolling onto his other side, kicking at the hot blankets, and crying out of frustration, he finally is able to see the big screen behind his eyelids with a tiredness that meant finally, sleep.

He doesn't dream a thing, as he always does when he sleeps. Just the blackness of an unconscious mind. A bittersweet darkness he was all too happy to greet.

* * *

 **LOOK AT HOW HORRIBLE IT IS UGH I WAS SUCH A BAD WRITER no jk its still readable but Bunnys slang was hard for me to get ( come on we all know who they all are like geesh i wasnt good at surprises back then ok ) also d** **on't mind this chapter's goof-ups. I am tired and fixing my old junk didn't seem like fun.**

 **This was the part my old self stopped writing ( Or, actually, where the story got so confusing I had to cut it off.) I'm going to try continuing it onward from here, so hopefully it won't be too dumb, alright?**

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 **O if you liked, X if you didn't.**


	3. III

***pats you all with newspaper* there there**

* * *

He paces across the rooftop, filled with worry. It was cold outside, and even though it was autumn they had a thick snow coming down in what could seem to be slow motion. He hated the cold - despised it, even, if he were to be angry enough with it - and with the snow, he hated it when people were late.

Like now, for instance.

He was E. Aster Bunnymund, and his friends - his fellow guardians - were late. He had considered the thought that maybe he was on the wrong building, but after triple checking he confirmed that was not the case.

North should have shown up three hours ago, sleigh at the ready to do a test run while Sandy, Tooth, and him observed to make sure there were no sudden jerks or movements North was unaware of. It was a safety precaution they did almost every year a week or so after thanksgiving.

Thumping his foot impatiently on the roof, he crosses his arms, wishing he had brought a coat. Maybe he could turn into a polar bear, but that would just raise questions if his team were to come by then and there. He didn't want to answer such a silly thing, nor did he think he could live such a thing down if he tried.

He was a pooka, so shape shifting was his specialty. But a polar bear on a rooftop sounded like a start of a joke, and he'd rather not start said joke anytime soon.

Soon, after ten more rounds of pacing and muttering curses under his breath in a language unknown, does he hear the sounds of buzzing wings and the whispers of feathers. Toothiana was here, now, at least.

"What took you so long?" he gruffly asks.

"I had to close up shop." she sighs, almost dreamily.

"You mean you had to deal with your friend?" he chuckles. "So like you, to befriend a human."

"Well," she starts, frowning at the tiny joke. "He _was_ a child in need." she continues. "Why, he was nothing but skin and bones; he couldn't even afford a quick snack!"

"I see." Bunny nods. "I suppose if the places were switched, I would have spent as much time as possible with such a child." his ears lower and he flinches as a gust of chill wind blows over the rooftop.

Toothiana giggles at the other, hand covering her mouth. She takes a moment to retie the purple-green scarf around her neck. "I tried to get him to stay with me for the night, but..."

"He ran off, huh?"

"Not really, but he refused so much that I had to let him go." she shrugs. "You can't kidnap a child, after all. I would have called the police, but it wouldn't have been much better."

"He's a regular?"

"He comes around the shop sometimes. He likes to read the books, and I like to make sure he's okay." she answers. "I just can't help but wonder about him, though. It seems every time he walks into my shop, it's his first time there. It's...almost otherworldly."

Bunny nods. "I remember when that happened to me once or twice." he says. "It happened a little while after I first touched nightmare sand."

Toothiana gasps. "You don't think...?"

"Pitch?" the other scoffs. "Hell no. Guy's been gone since Nightlight took 'im out."

"I don't know..." she shifts, hugging herself lightly. "He's always managed to show up. He's a shadow, after all; seeping through cracks people normally don't see."

"He won't." Bunny assures, taking a step by her side, to throw an arm around her. "Or, better yet, he's scared enough to stay down in that hole in the earth he calls a home."

Toothiana remains quiet for a second, before he lips quirk up into a smile. "Don't you live in a hole?"

Bunny pauses. "Oh no. Forget that. Let's say that the shadow lives under a rock, where he belongs."

"But if you were to think, you'd _also_ live under a rock."

"Tooth." he groans as she laughs.

The tinkling of bells is soon heard over the gusts of wind, before North's sleigh slams down onto the roof, skidding to a semi-expert landing, each deer panting from the exertion, as the jolly man known throughout the world as Santa laughs and straightens his hat.

"About time, you bloody turtle!" Bunny shouts, releasing Toothiana from under his arm to step toward the sleigh, the fairy trailing behind.

"Ah, but it was turtle who won race!" North laughs, taking a step out of the contraption. "Where's sandy?"

"He hasn't shown yet." Tooth answers. "But it _is_ night, remember, so he must be giving out dreams."

"Of course." North nods. "Perhaps we should get this over with, then, so little man can rest easy knowing he doesn't have to stop."

"Good idea." Bunny says, before taking off. "I'll just be over here, watching." he shouts, taking a leap off the building. Knowing the pooka, he'd most likely jump into a store with large enough windows to both watch and be warm.

"Hah. Little bunny cannot handle cold!" North laughs once more.

"It's not too bad, I suppose." Tooth shrugs. "But promise me that you won't loop this time? It's hard watching you almost crash into buildings like that."

"No promises." North smiles, hopping back into the sleigh and grabbing the reigns. "Though maybe I won't if you promise to make some cookies."

"Sugar-free." she crosses her arms, giving him a smug look as that smile falls from his face.

"Sugar-free? Woman, have you any idea what that does to a man?"

"Sugar-free, or no cookies."

North sighs, wiping a hand down the side of his face. "You play hard bargain." he says. "Deal."

Toothiana laughs.

* * *

The rounds were over, and the three met up with the Sandman to then travel to Toothiana's shop. She had a few couches around the reading areas and a portable stove with her for when the power runs out due to some evil spirit or another. It was sad, knowing she actually had to use the portable stove, but it was her life.

They all sat around, telling about their week so far, sipping tea and eating cookies, which Toothiana had to buy, as she didn't have an oven set up in her shop yet, nor would she ever. North couldn't complain enough, but he did enjoy the cookies.

"And then I had to pull the thing out of the river!" Bunnymund grumps. "Can you believe it? I thought they were majestic creatures or something, but no! This deer was probably the dumbest monster to live in my warren!"

"Well, maybe it was surprised?" North suggests.

"Nah, not really. It was skittish as heck, though."

"Speaking of skittish." Toothiana cuts in. "I met someone I'd like us to help for Christmas."

"Who? Seraphina?" North asks, as Bunny arches an eyebrow her way.

"Is it the child you hung out with?" Bunny asks. "As long as he isn't a down-right drongo, I can help 'im out."

"Er..." she begins. The other guardians might not even like Jack Frost, from how bothersome the boy had been in the past. But - but the way he looked at her when she bought him something as simple as a sandwich? That was certainly one of the most hopeful, and depressing faces she had ever seen. "He isn't."

"Why do you think child needs our help?" North asks, sitting straighter now with interest.

"He's...he's hungry, he probably doesn't have a home, and if he did I don't think it's somewhere nice..." Toothiana states off, wringing her hands together nervously. "His shoes are pretty ruined - which isn't...isn't nice, I'm sure...and…-"

"Stop." North says, interrupting her, before smiling. "We will help. We are guardians, after all. No child should be left like that, even if they are 'down-right drongo', wouldn't you say, Bunny?" he nudges the pooka with his elbow, making the rabbit drop his cookie.

"Yeah." he agrees, shooting North a glare as he picks the fallen treat up from the floor. "What's this ankle biter's name?"

Sanderson, all the while, drinks away at the tea he was offered, listening intently. He wasn't entirely talkative - due to the fact that, should he speak, all the sleeping people of the world would wake up somehow. He did show his support through a thumbs up and a wink.

Toothiana frowns, though, still nervous about bringing this topic to her friends. They had to chase Jack Frost around the entire world once, just because he kept leaving statues in the most strangest of places, and in the most strangest of poses.

One, she remembers, having the boogeyman and Sanderson doing the 'boogie'. She actually liked that one, but it was in the middle of Corona's highway, and that meant it had to be melted. She took a picture, though, for blackmail's sake.

"His name?" she says slowly. "You would help him, though, right?"

"Why, is he a mass-murderer?" Bunny chuckles, handing his once-fallen cookie to Sandman, who eats it without a second thought.

"No." Tooth answers.

"Is he a thief?" North asks.

"No?" she says. She honestly didn't know if Jack had stolen anything before. She hopes not.

'We'll help!' Sanderson signs using his dreamsand, as he cradles his empty glass.

She pauses for a moment, looking over their expressions of curiosity. Maybe...maybe this wasn't such a bad idea?

"It's Jack."

Bunny rears back from where he was once leaning before. "Jack? As in...Frost?" he snarls the end as if it were a curse, and at that point Toothiana really wondered if bringing it up to them was a bad idea.

"Bah! What is child up to now?" North rolls his eyes. "He's king of the naughty list already! He needs a whole new list, just for himself!"

"You said he was a regular at your shop!" Bunny glares across the room at her. "Did he do anything? Did he hurt someone? Freeze something?"

"Guys." she says, only to be ignored.

"Child would have had an entire coal house by now! With coal Mountains!"

Sanderson slides to sit next to her, patting her knee and looking up at her. 'I got you.' his look seemed to say, as he quickly grabbed another cookie from the box, and flinging it at Bunny.

"What the 'ell, mate?"

North stops mid-rant to turn to Sandman, who is sending them both a look. He signs 'Shut up. Listen.'

"Why?" Bunny crosses his arms, ears as straight as could be. "It's Frost. He always causes some kind of mess for us to trail behind and clean up!"

'Shut up. Listen.' Sanderson signs again.

"Fine." the pooka gruffly agrees. "Say your piece. Why should we help?"

"He's hurt!" Toothiana shouts. "He's a child, and he's hurt! He's hungry! He's alone! - A _child_!" she stresses. "No child, no matter how completely horrible they may be should ever have those problems! - Why, even a full-grown man couldn't handle those problems correctly, unless he had help!"

North, slowly losing the anger in his eyes, looks to the floor, solemn. "I was wrong." he admits. "I apologize. But how do we help, if, say, he does not want help?"

"We do it like I've done it; we disguise ourselves!" Toothiana answers, heart thumping in excitement. She had no clue it'd be this quick to get them to help!

"Hah! I couldn't disguise for my life!" North bellows. "Everyone knows Santa!" he pats his belly.

"Don't worry." she says. "I think I can find you a look."

"Then yes! I can help child!" North beams with happiness at the idea. "Will make him so full of wonder, that he'd have no time for mischief!" the Russian then turns to Bunnymund. "What about you, friend?"

Bunny sinks down into the couch, pulling his ears back. "Fine. I'll give him a few eggs or something." he then looks at Sanderson. "But don't expect me to be all buddy-buddy with him. After what he did with the football stadium? No thanks."

Sandy just shrugs, rolling his eyes. 'Whatever. I'm helping!' he signs out.

"Then it is settled!" North smiles. "When does child visit shop?"

"I told him to meet me at lunch tomorrow." she answers him. "I can introduce you all - er, except you, Sandy. I don't know how you'd disguise yourself..."

The little man pouts for a moment before a light bulb appears in sand over his head. He forms a sand mustache.

"Nice try."

* * *

 **This was done half-assedly at best, which is why it's so short, but I'm trying to just...get into it, you know? This is only 2,000 words I'm so sorry.**

 **If anyone has a good summary for this story, I'd love to hear it! oUo**

 **Jack will be back next chapter!**

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 **O if you liked, X if you didn't!**


	4. IV

**i didnt wanna reread what ive written. i did reread every lil cringe-worthy thing here just to continue, so you best be flippin' those pancakes, nerd, because im ready to be showered in nothing but pancakes for this**

-o-

Katharine was ecstatic.

She may have been a bit rude to Jack, but when they boy went to nightlight's old room to sleep, she'd promptly jumped straight into looking information up about him - up to the point where she'd even opened up her laptop, which was a very rare thing for her to do, as she claims that books are far, far more better.

They'd only heard about Frost in passing. Sometimes, though, they'd turn on the television to see a short newscast about him causing blizzards here and there, making ice sculptures, or gathering hundreds of children to a specific place for an all-out snowball fight.

Nightlight would have joined the latter, but he was all the way in San Fransokyo when the last snowball fight happened, letting a few people look him over. They'd wanted to experiment with creating their own 'nightlight', and had been trying for what seemed like years now to make an ordinary object do so. (They probably never would, though. Not without magic, anyway, and they simply didn't believe in magic, as they were too far set in science.)

But, here Katharine was, searching up everything she could.

She'd tell him every little snippet she found that seemed as true as it could get. He could very easily read it from his seat next to her, but he rather liked listening to her ramble on and on, and so didn't bother searching for anything.

Besides, knowing Katharine, she'd find out everything she could by the end of the night.

If Nightlight didn't tell her to go to bed, of course. She could stay up weeks on one little topic, wasting away with books and internet searches until she yawned every three words into her sentences. He always made sure she didn't do silly things like that. Knowledge was forever, after all, and Katharine, though nearly immortal, was not.

"You know when Aster told us about the Egypt accident?" Katharine asks, typing away on the keyboard, starting up another search, "turns out the people in Egypt actually liked it? - I think, anyway. A lot of the news I can find from there seemed pretty happy for the weather." She continues, not even waiting for him to reply.

He nods anyway, glowing brighter. It _was_ pretty odd that they'd enjoy it. Maybe it was because it seemed like an impossible feat at the time, since, after all, snow hadn't been in Egypt for a few hundred years at least.

Katharine continues typing, before pausing to glance at him, "why do you think he freaked out, by the by? It most certainly wasn't because he was hot, because him even _being_ in Egypt disproves that."

He sits up straighter to that. It really was odd for Frost to suddenly freak out like that. You'd think he saw a ghost with the way he shook!

No, no it definitely wasn't because he was hot. And being with people seemed like his favorite thing, so it wasn't pressure, was it?

What had happened right before then? That could give an answer.

Katharine, as if reading his thoughts, nods, "before that, maybe? He did move away when I mentioned Tsar, right? - Or...maybe he's afraid of you? You did touch him, both during when he moved away, and during his panic?"

Nightlight bites his cheek to that. It was true, he'd went to pat the boy on the shoulder, and he'd wrapped his am around the other when they found out he could hear moonspeak.

But before that, Jack seemed fine with him. When they ran into each other he'd seemed quite curious about Nighltight, not fearful. He didn't really want to come with Nightlight, though, but he didn't seem _afraid_.

It could be possible, though, so he'll have to remember to keep a distance from Frost until he knows for sure.

"- but," Katharine breaks the silence, "he also asked that strange question before, didn't he? - What was it again? Something with Tsar?"

Oh!

Yeah...yeah, Frost looked fearful, then. He'd started stuttering a bit when the conversation led to Tsar.

Now, that seemed like something to go on.

But what, exactly? - No child, no immortal, no _being_ from anywhere is fearful of Tsar Lunanoff, so it can't be that.

...Or could it?

Jack was, in a way, 'evil'. He constantly got into fights with the guardians, and pulled some of the most impossible pranks.

But he also never hurt anyone, and when he did he usually had a valid reason.

'It can't be Tsar', he signs quickly.

Katharine hums in thought, tapping her fingers against the laptop, "perhaps it has something to do with Tsar tinkering in magic? - He asked about the children Tsar was able to create, right?" he furrows her brow, "he called them creations. Is that strange? - It seems a bit strange to me."

Nightlight nods in agreement. Now, Frost could have worded it that way to be less offensive, or he could have worded the question that way for the question itself.

' _what does he...what does he do if they fail? His creations? D...does he...lock them away? Kill them?'_

Nightlight felt uneasy from this, and yet he had no idea why.

Katharine seemed to feel the same way, as she frowns and rubs at her eyes, "this is so confusing. It's like a giant puzzle, but we're missing a good portion of it."

The glowing man pushes his chair back and stands up. When Katharine looks up to him he smiles, 'sleep on it?' he signs, and at the exaggerated groan she sends his way he sticks his tongue out at her.

"But I can find the answer now! - I just have to look!" she says, standing up and closing her laptop despite her desires.

'You can find it later,' he replies, looping his arm with hers and leading her away from the mess of books and notes she'd left.

"How romantic. I'm swooning," she says sarcastically.

Nightlight sniggers, taking his arm back and putting it around her shoulders instead, lifting his hand and running fingers through her hair.

She leans into him, then, wrapping her arm around his waist.

They stop right outside her bedroom door by now, and Nightlight was expecting a goodnight kiss - a routine they did every night before Katharine went off to bed, or Nightlight left to fight off nightmares.

She leans up, and he leans down, closing his eyes.

-only to be laughed at, and lightly shoved away.

"For this, you're making breakfast, silly."

He frowns at the idea - he hated cooking. He always ended up worrying over the stove.

Just as he is about to argue against this, Katharine pecks him on the cheek, "Goodnight." she says, before quickly entering her room, closing the door behind her without another word.

It takes Nightlight ten seconds far too late to realize what had happened.

He was stuck making breakfast.

Great.

-o-

-o-

He woke up surprisingly early, considering he was, well, himself, and he usually never - if _ever_ \- woke up with the sun.

As much as he hated the moon, he didn't mind staying up until the earliest rays of dawn arrived.

That could be because he was an immortal teenager who is free to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.

Sadly, _he_ didn't wake himself up.

The sunlight streamed through the window, over the bed and nearly blinded him. He takes the blanket and covers his head, like any sensible being when it comes to the morning sunshine.

A giggle to his right has him grumpily peeking out of the blanket, "Why?"

Katharine opens the curtains wider, "breakfast is ready, so unless you want it cold, you should get up."

Jack sends her a deadpan look at what she'd just said.

It takes her a minute to roll her eyes, "okay, okay, if you _want_ food, you should get up. That sound any better?"

"Sounds great," he quips.

"Thought so," she smiles, making her way to the door.

Just as he goes to sit up, Katharine turns back to him, "oh, by the way, there's some clothes for you in the drawer."

He turns to quickly look at her, "whaa?"

She giggles once more, "clothes. Drawer. _Clean_."

"But - but I-"

"You probably also need a bath," she crinkles her nose up, "you smell like a hippy, to put it lightly."

"Bath? - But what -"

"Yes, bath. The bathroom is the door on the right just out here", she points to the door, "breakfast will be in the kitchen when you're done."

"Say what now -"

Katharine closes the door behind her, still laughing at him.

He frowns.

Why did ha need a bath - he didn't smell _that_ bad, did he? He thought the snow and cold kept that problem away or something.

He stands up, shooting a glare to the opened curtains before moving over to the drawers.

Sadly, they didn't have hoodies in there - only T-shirts and jeans. The usual. He did have an undershirt on, though, so he could just replace that and still keep his hoodie.

Wait...what will he do with his old clothes, though? He couldn't leave them around. Maybe he could quickly bury them somewhere?

No. That idea is dumb.

He'll just ask them. Maybe he could also ask them if the clothes they were willing to let him wear were to be given back.

He grabs the clothes randomly - as long as the jeans fit, he'd be okay. If the shirt didn't fit, he could always just wear his hoodie without an undershirt.

Going out the door and turning right, he makes his way into the bathroom.

It's not too large, but also not too small, if that makes any sense. It still had a kind of antique feel to it, but it was comfortable nonetheless.

Looking in the mirror, he frowns at his own reflection - he hadn't seen himself so clearly in a long while now. He looked so... _weird_.

He looked kind of like Nightlight, actually, now that he got a look of himself. Like a mini Nightlight. Without the glow and the weird armor.

That was a weird thought.

Then again if Tsar...made Jack...

He shakes his head, tossing away the thought entirely. He quickly takes off his hoodie and tosses it to the floor with a little more force than was necessary.

Seriously, screw Tsar. Screw every thought of that man.

-o-

 **O if you liked, X if you didn't!**


	5. V

**to the reviewers: you guys are so** _ **great**_ **i feel awful for making you wait so long take this. take this into your lil cupcake house. read it. eat it. sprinkle some flavorful spices on it. burn it. do whatever, because youre so great.**

-o-

Liana - or, well, Toothiana - was surprised to see Katharine and Nightlight following close behind Jack Frost as they enter the little shop.

It was about a quarter until twelve, though, so she couldn't stop working yet.

But...but it's just that she was so pleasantly _surprised_. Katharine and Nightlight usually stayed out of guardian business, what with them choosing to settle down and take things easy after the last major battle with the boogeyman.

She practically flung herself across the room to give Katharine the most biggest of hugs - reaching her arm over to drag Nightlight into it, too.

To say she was happy was an understatement. She was thrilled.

The other guardians were great, yes, but it seemed only Sandy appreciated trying to help Jack - North was fine with the idea, too, but he was skeptical. Bunny wasn't too happy about it, so he didn't entirely count.

Nightlight and Katharine were two of the most understanding immortals Toothiana could think of - and, surprise, surprise, they were here! They'd probably help her with Jack!

This was confirmed when she turned to look at the boy - it looked like he got some new clothes. She couldn't be too sure about shirts, though, since he still wore his old trademark hoodie, but she was absolutely happy to know he had new clothes, anyway.

Of course, though, his shoes didn't look that great when compared to the rest of him...

Ah, she could always buy him some new ones later, if her idea works out. If not, she'll still buy him things anyway, if only to see him smile because - _oh_ \- his _beautiful_ teeth!

Quickly walking back to her desk, she gestures them over, "I'm so happy to see you guys again! It's been so long!"

Katharine laughs as the group of three walk over to the excited woman, "it's only been about two weeks. We met during thanksgiving, remember?"

"True," Toothiana says, "but can't I be happy to see you anyway?"

"You can. We missed you, too."

Jack awkwardly coughs into his fist, then, gaining the three's attention, "hi."

"Awe, I see you've met Jack," Toothiana states, "and hello, Jack, how are you? - Love the jeans."

He's silent for a few seconds, "what?" he asks, looking down to said jeans, not entirely getting her praise.

"Oh - uhm," Toothiana stutters, "I meant to say that I like your new clothes, is all! Very nice and uhm... _new,_ __you know?"

"Oh. Thanks, I guess," he smiles shyly at her.

Katharine giggles at him, "yeah, the new clothes look really suits you. You should get new clothes all the time," she says, lightly poking fun at Toothiana.

"After lunch, we should go get you new clothes," Toothiana says, playing along, "because you look so good in them."

Nightlight was making an X with his arms, shaking his head in warning.

And poor, poor Jack seemed to have no idea what the man was trying to do, only giving him a curious glance and an unsure smile, "new clothes, huh? Where would I put them?"

"In a bag? - There's some cool backpacks you can choose from," Katharine suggests.

Toothianas and Katharine share a look at that, "you know..." Toothiana starts, "you can always stay with me -"

The front door slammed open with enough force to shake the books on the walls, causing everyone to jumped a good few inches from the ground in surprise.

To Toothiana's utter horror, there stands the big man himself, Santa, and boomerang-wielding pooka right behind him.

Everything is all still save for the few complaining customers in the back, who had yet to see what caused the sudden noise.

You could have heard a pin drop a few seconds after, though. No one moved, nor made a sound.

Jack lets out a strangled yelp.

Then, as if everything went fast forward, both Santa and the Easter bunny attack.

They lunge straight toward Jack Frost, bulldozing their way past Nightlight. North has a sack in hand - one of the ones he uses for presents, no less - and Bunny had tossed a boomerang, only to miss the target completely and get stuck in the far wall instead.

Jack had immediately ducked passed Bunny, jumping straight onto a shelf, knocking a few books down.

Honestly, if this was anyone else' shop, Toothiana would probably be apologizing to the owner profusely.

But this was her shop. _And for manny's sake_ \- what were these two _doing_?

Just as Bunny leaped up, hand grabbing for the winter spirit, Jack hops down, rolls, and with a burst of speed practically flies out of the shop, with little much as a snowflake to tell he was ever there.

It had all happened so fast, no one really had time to tell the two to stop.

Thee two - these two... ohh, they were _SO_ going to get an earful!

"What were you doing?!" Katharine shrieks before Toothiana even has a chance to open her mouth.

Nightlight takes a quick look to everyone before rushing out the door, most likely to find his friend. No one stops him, thankfully.

Bunny drops down from the shelf, twirling one boomerang in his paw, "tryin' to nab frosty, what's it look like?"

Toothiana steps forward, "why?" she all but growls. Bunny flinches back at this, and she finds little to no satisfaction in it - they knew what they did. They knew what they were going to do. And yet they did it.

North looks sheepish, to say the least, "well, we...we thought maybe..."

" _Nicholas._ " Katharine says, with all the authority she could muster in her tone - something she most likely learned to use around the children of Santoff Claussen. A good skill to have.

"- We were thinkin', and it seemed that catching the little bugger seemed far more easier than hiding in plain sight." Bunny answers for the man.

"It was working! - And you ruined it!" Toothiana wails, then, her heart feeling heavy with dread, "he's never come back! - Ever! Why?"

"Now, sheila -"

"Don't you dare correct her, Bunnymund." Katharine says, taking a step closer to him and poking him in the chest, "you're going to help fix this, I'll have you know!"

At this point, Nightlight walks back in, looking dejected, his glow dimmer than usual.

Jack Frost was gone.

-o-

" **Then, as if everything went fast forward, both Santa and the Easter bunny attack."**

 **This is it**

 **this is my entire fanfiction career summed up in one sentence**

 **get on my level nerds**


	6. VI

**this chapter was made in one day. My new record.**

 **I was gonna rewrite this but thats a big reason why I procrastinate on this story so take this anyway before I change my mind.**

 **TW: a...monster. Nice and scary, I think? Didn't seem scary to me, but whatever.**

-o-

Jack had flown all the way into the outskirts of the city by the time his mind finally caught up to him.

The guardians suddenly showing up at such a small shop, weapons in hand...it was nearly unheard of. They didn't usually go out of their way to harm people, evil or not.

Or that's what Jack had thought before it happened.

Did they really just try to hurt him? Without Jack doing anything to warrant it?

Why?

What did he do wrong this time?

 _Nightlight and Katharine_.

Jack's face scrunches up at the thought of the two. If a tear trails down his cheek, he doesn't make to wipe it away.

They _lied_.

They called the guardians, didn't they?

All that time he'd stuck around, if only because they were people, and they were nice, just to be tossed away like garbage.

Again.

If the moon was up, he'd blame Tsar right off the bat, but it was not up. In spite of how betrayed and awful he felt, the sun was still shining, the sky was clear, and the snow on the ground was still as white as ever.

Things continued to go on, even if he wanted them to stop.

He'd really started to like the two - they were so, so _nice_. They listened to him, they laughed with him. They even gave him things without asking for anything in return.

He was so convinced that there was some guardian who was nice. Who was as good as they advertised.

He thought he had someone he could trust. Someone he could talk to. Someone who would _really_ look at him.

But no. No he did not.

He flies passed all the trees - the city he'd been in was surrounded by forests and mountains. He knows which mountain led where, and how to find the closest town by that alone.

He wasn't going to fly too far, though. He was without his staff - he'd left it at the doorway of...Nightlight and Katharine's home.

He recalls Nightlight also leaving his staff behind. Katharine had said they'll be there when they came back.

She lied, of course. Now the guardians had his staff, and he couldn't control his flight all that much, if at all - it took all the skill as he had to dodge the tops of trees, and even more skill to slow down.

His flight without his staff was much like a rocket - slowing down wasn't something he could do, and turning wasn't very easy.

Honestly, though, he couldn't care.

He'd been tossed away.

They didn't want him.

Every little thing they said to him was probably a lie. They probably thought they could catch him and send him back where he...where he came from.

He was not going back. Never. He'd much rather lose his staff to the guardians than let them take him...back.

Back to the moon.

He's a third of the way to Burk when he forces himself to slam into the snow - it hurt, as any unskilled flier would know, but nothing was broken, as the snow cushioned him enough he barely felt it.

He sits there for a moment, eyes downcast.

He didn't know what to do.

It was clear the guardians were not to be trusted. He'd been dancing with the devil without entirely knowing it.

Before, he knew the guardians would send him back if they ever caught him, but he never actually... _knew_. His thoughts were so far away from the idea of being brought to the moon, that he'd spent his time actively gaining the gaurdian's attention.

The reason being that they were like him.

In some weird way.

They were spirits - or, that's what everyone called them, anyway. They had weird powers, they could run, or fly, around the entire world if they wanted to, they could do nearly everything Jack could do.

He just wanted someone to understand him, yet love him anyway.

As weird as that sounded.

Looking back, he probably shouldn't have provoked them. He should have at least tried to gain their trust, while keeping his distance.

So, perhaps, all of this was his fault in the first place.

He was just a failure. A faulty experiment with no hope.

Something flickers are the corner of his eye, and has him turning his gaze to the brush, jumping up on his feet and preparing to fly away once more. The guardians could travel just as fast as he could.

They probably followed him here.

Something knocks on the tree to his right, and he snaps his attention toward it. The pine needles shook, causing the snow from it to fall. Just enough cover to hide in, Jack quickly thought, taking a step back from it.

It grew silent, then.

Not even a chirp from a bird. Not even the whistling of the wind.

Something moves to his right once more and he quickly turns to the movement, searching the brush and trees for whatever it could be.

He didn't want to fight - never did want to fight, but if the guardians were going to take him back, he'll be damned if he simply dropped down and let them.

He'd rather die.

And isn't that just a sickening thought? - That the guardians, who protected the world from fear and darkness, would _kill_ him?

He wouldn't put it passed them, now that he knew them.

Just as he turns left, back to the tree, he trails his eyes over the tree's shadow.

It was...dancing?

The shadow was a lighter color due to the snow surrounding it, but it was indeed dancing. Or, well, what seemed to be dancing. It swayed from side to side, curling in on itself to the right, only to expand when it moved to the left.

Jack couldn't find the words to describe it.

It was just weird. Unnatural.

Shadows don't dance. _At all_. They go in the opposite direction of the sun, and they stay there. The only time a shadow should move is when the object it comes from moves as well.

Jack finds himself taking yet another step back, "hello?"

The shadow halts in it's dance, and Jack's breath hitches in alarm - any one of the guardians could have some weird magic with shadows, as far as he knew. Any spirit could, actually.

Unless, of course, this was just some weird...anti-wisp thing. He's only ever seen wisps in DunBroch.

That was only once, though, before he had to leave for summer. The wisps thrived in colder weather, sure, but they mostly came out in the spring or summer. A time when Jack had long gone.

An anti-wisp was a silly idea, but he had no other ideas to go on.

"Hello?" he tries again, voice louder this time. He wishes he had his staff - it was both a weapon, and a comfort. Sadly, though, he couldn't wrap his arms around it, as it was not here, and so shoved both hands in the pocket of his hoodie.

He flinches back when the shadow slowly moves toward him.

And it does the most...strangest thing.

Jack stands there, mouth open in awe as the little shadow _grows_ , pulling itself from the ground and taking a shape of its own.

His blood runs cold when two yellow eyes stare him down, the shadow towering over him.

It was beastly - it looked like some inky version of a wolf, but had many, many legs. It was about as tall as the top of most street lights, looking down at him as if he were nothing but an insect.

It had a human face.

That was what had Jack taking several hurried steps back, pulling his hands from his pocket in fright.

It stares him down, and he had no idea what it was, nor its intentions.

The inky mass moves slowly forward, dragging its few back legs behind it grotesquely. Jack froze in place, his body unwilling to move further, seizing up.

The beast lowers its head above Jack, unblinkingly.

"Hell...Hello?" Jack shakily greets.

The being opens its mouth, revealing rows of sharp, jagged teeth. He flinches away, eyes closing tight on their own accord, his knees nearly buckling in fear.

And then the being _laughs_.

This laugh wasn't the friendly _ha-ha_ that most people are accustomed to. This laugh was a howl, with several growls following afterwards.

It was hard to tell it was a laugh, but that was what Jack thought it was.

"Uhm?" he asks, opening an eye to look up at the creature.

But, when he looked to where the creature had been, it was nowhere to be found.

The growls were gone, the beast was gone.

"What?" he asks himself, looking over the various shadows nearby in hopes to find a dancing shadow, "hello?" he calls aloud, turning in a circle, looking, "where did you go?"

A thump sounds out somewhere deep in the forest - much like a heavy clump of snow falling off a tree.

Now, normally, if he didn't have his staff, he'd never, ever think of running into the woods after something so...monstrous.

But the creature had his interest, and it wasn't like there was anything else for him to do.

And...and maybe he just wanted to know if the spirit was okay or not.

Because, oddly enough, the howl reminded Jack of...the moonclipper. There were so, so many other experiments up on the moon.

Jack felt guilty for many of them, even the ones who said they'd kill him. No one deserved what the man up there did to them. No one.

The shadow reminded him of being up there, listening to the pleading whispers coming from the other cells.

So...he just wanted to know if the shadow was okay, is all.

That was it.

It was not an experiment. It _wasn't_. It couldn't be.

Jack's walking through the forest before logic could catch up to him.

-o-

After an hour or so of nonstop walking, following the trail of broken tree limbs and dodging the odd bush that got in his way, he finally caught up to it.

Man, that thing could walk _fast_.

Must be what all the extra legs were for? - It didn't look to be using the extra legs, though. It stuck to four, as far as he could tell. Maybe it switched legs when they grew tired?

"Slow down!" he pants, jogging to keep up.

The monster doesn't listen to him, though, and continues onward, its giant mass bending the trees and rocks that were in its way unnaturally, bullying its way through the forest, creating a path of its own.

"Who are you?" he asks, finally catching up to its side - keeping a far enough distance in case he needed to run, of course.

The beast turns its heard toward him, and it takes all of Jack's strength not to turn away from it.

It doesn't answer, though, as when it opens its mouth, it turns back to its path and continues onwards, mouth left agape.

It...was haunting, to say the least. The creature would most likely give Jack nightmares by the end of this.

"Are you okay?"

There, the only question he really needed to ask, and he'll be on his way, back to avoiding the guardians.

The creature, mouth still agape, eyes unblinking and wide, _groans_.

Jack takes that as a no, as the being quickens it's pace.

Just as he's about to follow it, another groan sounds out, " _go away_." a gravely voice says.

He pauses, staring at the retreating back of the monster, "what?"

"Go away!" the beast quickly snaps its head to look at him, pushing itself toward him.

He leaps out of the way, landing out of arm's reach - or, well, leg's reach.

"Why?" he asks, spreading his arms wide, "you're hurt!" he exclaims. Whether it was true or not, he didn't know, but it _sounded_ like it was hurt.

The being wheezes out a breath, "go away! Go _away_!" it shrieks, diving toward him.

He jumps out of the way once more, a claw narrowly missing the top of his head.

Okay, if that's how the beast wanted it, who was he to say anything?

He takes to the skies, just as it howls, loud and guttural.

With the amount of control he has while flying without his staff, he didn't have the time to look back.

Nor did he think he wanted to.

First the guardians, and then that thing.

Could his life get any stranger? - What next, a giant leprechaun is going to come out and throw rocks at him?

He changes course, flying ahead of the monster, to Burk.

Maybe if he told the dragons there about it, they'd know what to do.

-o-

-o-

The day after Jack Frost flew off, a hasty call came in from Burk; Panicked screaming could be heard just behind the man's voice as he tells them the problem.

The problem?

A fearling.

Bunnymund had hopped into his tunnels before the man on the other end of the call could even finish, Nightlight following close behind.

Toothiana abruptly told the man to hide, and try to remain calm, before closing the call and running to North's sleigh.

Katharine was already on her Himalayan Goose, flying to Burk with a speed that could rival North's sleigh any day.

Sandy had flown straight passed them all, having already sensed the fearling hours before the call. He hadn't been certain about the feeling, though, as fearlings had long since been destroyed.

Or so they thought.

Fearlings meant that Pitch is _stronger_. Strong enough to turn people into the...things.

This made their hearts race. No one wanted another dark age. No one wanted to see a fearling ever, _ever_ again.

They were the very reason Bunnymund was the last pooka - the very reason the night sky was less brighter than before. They were the cause of many, many things. Terrible things. Things only the darkest of minds could even _ponder_.

 _No one_ wanted to see a fearling again.

Especially now, when fearlings had long since become history.

When they arrive, not but five minutes later, they are relieved to know that the people of Burk had flown off to safety - they had dragons here, after all.

Sadly, even dragons weren't enough to hinder the fearling's destructive path.

Houses were torn apart, farm animals all slaughtered, staining the fields in red streaks. Trees and crops carelessly pushed to the side, and few fishing boats strewn about like nothing but children's toys.

It was a scary sight. The dragons flying high in the clouds above proved that they, too, knew that a fearling was not something to be trifled with.

The scariest thing about a fearling, to Toothiana, was that they were once _people._

They were much like zombies in that, but they didn't devour; They _destroyed_.

Bunnymund is the first to attack, tossing his dye bombs at it, a fierce growl ripping through his throat as he rushes from his tunnels and into the messy streets, looking more like a blur than a pooka.

Dye bombs wouldn't harm it, yes, but it would be painted bright colors, so if it decided to run and hide, it would be easier to find, even if it turned into a shadow.

Bunny learned through experience how to kill fearlings. _He never forgot_. He knew that the very first thing one should do is paint them, mark them, anything to keep track.

Sandy whips his sand at the beast, drawing its attention away from the house it was just about to

climb onto. It follows him, a dark, bloody drool dripping down its chin.

The way it looks makes them pause for just a few seconds.

It wasn't an ordinary fearling.

In fact, it didn't even _look_ like a fearling, save for the yellow eyes, and twitching limbs.

It was big, and animalistic, sure, but it had...that _face_.

It took all Katharine had not to scream once she got a good look at the beast.

Nightlight jumps into the fray, then, swooping down from the air and slashing the tip of his spear across the beast's back.

It roars, rearing up on one too many legs, it twists its body abnormally, facing Nightlight, and lunging itself into the air after him.

Before it had the chance to reach out for the glowing spirit, North, along with Toothiana, ram the sleigh right into its head, knocking it down to the ground, smashing one of the boats previously mentioned in a show of dirt and broken wood.

The reindeer jerk the sleigh around, afraid of being so close to such a creature, and North has to forcefully yank on the reigns to keep them from flying away. No one mentioned the curses he throws at the deer - they were too busy with the fearling to even take notice.

The beast stands up slowly, eyeing the sleigh.

The thing about all fearlings, though, was that they only focused on the last person to attack them. It didn't make it any easier, but it did help in the long run.

It opens its mouth, jaw seeming to unhinge with a resounding, sickening pop.

It lets loose another roar, running in the direction of the sleigh, tearing the few buildings in its path carelessly apart as it leaps across the town.

Just as it nears North, A few bombs tossed beneath it catch its attention.

Bunny tosses some more, egging the monster to follow him, now.

And, the fearling being a fearling, horribly disfigured or not, stomps its way to the pooka, releasing an ear-piercing shriek.

-o-

Most of Burk's residents had to make a trek to the city of Claussen, after the fight.

The damage was far too much to be repaired within a week. It'll take months, if not an entire year to fix what the fearling had done.

It was all over the news - _first fearling in centuries! Guardians save the day once more!_

Sadly, as good as the news made it out to be, the guardians were left in a state of unease. Up to the point Katharine and Nightlight decided that they should move in with one of the guardians, just in case.

They may be retired, but Nightlight had experience with fearlings, and Katharine had a natural skill for healing magic. If fearlings were to show up once again, at least they would be ready for it.

Bunny had secluded himself in on of the workshop's many guest rooms, most likely making more bombs, or thinking about the fearlings he had to fight centuries ago.

Toothiana had to leave a few of her daughters in charge of getting teeth, and was now fluttering nervously back and forth, ignoring the concerned suggestions of her taking a seat.

Nightlight and Katharine both sat at one of the living room's couches, next to one another. North was mumbling to himself from his recliner, turning the pages of the old book he held much faster than it should take to read them.

Sandy had fallen asleep. He'd been the one to stop the fearling, in the end, wrapping it in his sand and, well, _squishing_ it.

It wasn't pretty, but that's how he did it, and as long as they didn't have to fight it again, that was alright.

Katharine was far too busy looking into fearlings on her laptop to take too much notice, though. If anything, Nightlight was the only one who tried to get Toothiana to sit down, and was the only one who offered North a glass of water, in an attempt to calm the man.

Nightlight sighs, slumping down until he was almost laying on the couch. So much had happened within the past few days, sure, but everyone was worrying over this.

They had every right to, of course, but worry was one of the starting emotions for fear, and the more fear they let Pitch have, the more of a chance they'll have another fearling show up.

Speaking of fearlings, what was up with the one they fought?

Throughout Nightlight's many, many years fighting against thousands upon thousands of fearlings, that one looked nothing like a fearling. At all.

The same mannerisms were there, yes, but that was _not_ a fearling. He was sure.

It worried him, yes, but he wasn't _afraid_.

He couldn't stop from worrying, no matter what he could do, but he wouldn't let himself become afraid. He'll be afraid when it mattered.

It's just that...Jack had flown in the direction of Burk.

Earlier, right after Bunnymund and North had scared off Jack, Nightlight had run to the door of the shop as fast as he could.

He only saw a glimpse of Jack before he'd flown too far.

Nightlight would have flown after him - should have, actually, but sadly, he couldn't fly all that fast without his spear, and he'd left that at home on Katharine's request.

Jack, though, Jack had left his staff there as well.

Jack flew to Burk without a weapon, and a day after a fearling shows up?

It didn't sit well with him. It was...it was too much of a coincidence.

Katharine speaks up, tearing Nightlight from his thoughts, "That didn't look like any of the fearlings I've seen."

North pauses in flipping another page, "I'm only seen one before that - the bear, if you remember?"

Katharine nods in reply. North, back when Santoff Claussen was still around, had fought off a fearling that had shown up, and taken the form of a bear.

It was a small fearling, when you compared it with others, but North beat it on his own.

From the inside out, nonetheless.

But that was a story for another time. North had only witnessed the one, before yesterday's monster had shown up, as he'd never bothered to enter any of Pitchner's caves, nor had he been around the dark side of the moon when they fought fearlings on the moonclipper.

North had been on the lighted side, away from the battle, searching for Tsar at that time.

That was before Pitch had been truly cast to Earth. Tsar had used his magic to keep the boogeyman on the planet.

Which was both a good idea and a bad idea. Good, because no other planets, or stars, wouldn't be harmed should Pitch be able to make fearlings again.

Bad, because now that he could make...whatever he made, the creatures, and Pitch, were stuck on Earth.

The guardians were assigned the task of protecting the world for a reason, you know, but they were only a few, and compared to how many fearlings Pitch had a long, long time ago? - They only made it passed that due to Tsar, who cast Pitch off the moonclipper about ten minutes into the battle.

So, unless they found something that could destroy a fearling instantly, they would surely lose.

"That wasn't a fearling," a voice, Bunnymund's, speaks from behind the couch. The pooka makes his way to the other side of the couch, claiming a seat, "it was _like_ one, but it wasn't one."

He had his old, green-tinted glasses on, but no one bothered to say anything about it. North's workshop was brightly lit in many rooms, so it made sense that the pooka wore them.

"You're sure of this?" Toothiana asks, lowering herself to the floor at last. She didn't bother moving to a seat, though. She was far too wired to sit still.

Nightlight huffs, sitting up from his slouch and quickly signing, 'it wasn't a fearling at all. It was too different.'

Bunnymund nods in agreement, "It was too _deformed_. In order for a fearling to take a form, they need to posses a person _or_ animal. And once they do, they're stuck with that form until they are destroyed."

"They take over the bodies." Katharine states, almost as a question, but not quite.

"Yes," Bunny says, "and, as far as I know, there is nothing on Earth that looks...like that." He sighs, rubbing at one of his ears, "I didn't think Pitch would ever come back. Nightlight knocked 'm silly about four hundred years ago. I thought it'd be nothing but small nightmares from then on."

No one really says anything to that, but they all felt the same way - Nightlight was oddly proud that he'd been able to knock Pitch out for so long, but that didn't help much now, did it?

They had all suspected Pitchner was still active. Just...hiding away. Maybe trying to out-wait the guardian's immortal lifespans or something. All the man had done was send out nightmare after nightmare - and many of those were easy to defeat.

It was a surprise to them all.

A fearling out of nowhere? No...Pitchner had something planned.

And that plan didn't seem good. At all.

Katharine chews her lower lip nervously, "I didn't think so, either."

"What do you think he did?" Toothiana asks, rubbing her arm. It was clear that the monster they'd fought left her uncomfortable and on edge. She didn't really hide the fact.

"To make the...whatever it was?" Bunnymund asks, leaning back into his seat, "beats me. It's impossible for such a creature to live, even if it were something on Earth - the anatomy should have rendered the thing nearly immobile, or, well... _slow_."

He glances around the group, "you saw how it was. A beast of that size, with all those legs? - I can see how it was able to stand and move, but it _wasn't_ using more than four of them. The weight would have been too much if it were something from Earth. The legs would most likely break."

"So..." Katharine takes her hands away from the keyboard of her laptop to look at the pooka, "it's not from this world? How? - Manny trapped him here, so he couldn't have grabbed it from anywhere else."

Bunnymund nods, "that's the question I've been meaning to ask as well."

"Maybe the creature is from underground?" North suggests, "There's many strange things there, yes?"

"No." Bunny says, adjusting his glasses, "I've been everywhere underground - it's my domain, as you all well know. The only strange things even _close_ to the monster we fought would be a centipede."

"And there's no way a centipede could grow to such a size?" Katharine asks, typing slowly on her laptop, making sure to write this all down.

"Not a snowball's chance in hell."

-o-

 **O if you liked, X if you didn't!**


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